Adrestia's Champion
by Third Dash
Summary: The people who have wronged him are many but Harry does not forgive or forget. A Slytherin Harry has neither the light nor the dark behind his back. So he must gather his own allies in his quest for vengeance. But will the cost of his vengeance be too high? Dark Harry, Neville BWL, no bashing. Harry/Multi
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**

 **This is going to be a dark Harry story. Harry is a Slytherin and Neville is the Boy-who-lived which means Voldemort paid a visit to the Longbottom household on Halloween night. Harry's home was visited by the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. on the same night when they were looking for Harry on Voldemort's orders. Exact details of the night would be revealed in the next chapter or so.**

 **Harry is a prodigy student especially in Transfiguration. His charm work isn't shoddy either but not as good as his transfiguration. He is no merlin reborn though, just ahead of his year mates. In terms of raw power, Neville is much stronger than him but combat won't rely only on raw power.**

 **One field where you could call Harry a once in a millennium is in mind arts. Harry's occlumency is impenetrable and his leglimency is advanced enough where only a good occlumence would notice the intrusion.**

 **No Weasley or Dumbledore bashing, no evil Weasley or Dumbledore, no stupid oath stuff, no SLASH.**

 **All characters have been aged 2 years partly because I want them to be more mature and partly because I am a little uncomfortable writing intimate scenes among fourteen year olds. If it puts you off, you can ignore the age rise as I won't reference to it often.**

 **I do not want to give away the pairings so I will add or remove people based on how far the story has come. So if you are someone who search for fanfics based on a particular character filter then this story can suddenly appear in your search results.**

 **Chapter 1**

A hand reached up to try and tame the unruly mane of jet black hair, only to fail yet again. A pair of emerald green eyes stared back from the stained and cracked public washroom mirror at a pale, fair and fairly attractive young man of 16. He was dressed eccentrically, like he was cosplaying someone from the 16th century. His cloak was black, with silver and green trimming. To add to the effect, he had a bulky iron trunk and a caged snow-white owl as his possessions.

Harry Potter let out a sigh and left his hair alone. He knew a losing battle when he saw one. His thoughts were a mess. In less than 10 minutes, he would be leaving for what was to be his 4th year in magical education. Yes, Harry Potter was a magician, or a wizard to be more appropriate. He and his kind waved around pointy wooden sticks and broke every scientific law known to man. Atleast the British ones did so; he had no idea what primitive ones in Africa got up to.

The last three years of his life had been, to put it mildly, eventful. He had found out that there was a reason behind all the wacky stuff he could do and that he was not a freak, as his relatives led him to believe. He had found his parents, or what was left of them. He had even found his godfather, who turned out to be a wrongly convicted mass murderer. He found out that the people responsible behind him growing up without parents were a group called death eaters and that they had recently come out of the woodworks. The principal ones responsible, namely the Lestrange Trio and Bartemus Crouch Jr. were still in Azkaban or dead, so that meant no need to leave for a revenge quest just yet.

However, the man responsible for it all, one named Peter Pettigrew had wormed out of his claws last year, courtesy the golden trio of Neville Longbottom, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Just thinking about that night filled Harry with a black rage. That was why he was standing in front of a public washroom mirror trying to centre his thoughts. Cursing the boy-who-lived and his sidekicks on sight would not do. He wanted to drop out and go looking for Pettigrew but Sirius had forbidden him from it. He had promised him that if he found Pettigrew, the rat would die, no mercy. Harry needed to control his emotions using occlumency.

It might be a little arrogant, but it was safe to say that Harry Potter was a prodigy in mind magics. Before Professor Mcgonagall visited him, Harry thought he was an alien from another galaxy, like Superman. His accidental magic had manifested in the form of hearing his relative's thoughts. When he was in a stressful situation, he could often implant thoughts in his uncle's mind to lay off of him. It wasn't mind control; he couldn't make anyone do anything. But a person is more likely to listen to something they perceive as their own idea. It was a shame that the person could easily dismiss the idea too, or he would have had equal shares of food as his cousin Dudley while growing up. On second thought, even half of Dudley's shares would be good enough for him.

He had been able to escape the worst of the beatings thanks to his abilities, and since joining Hogwarts his relatives had adopted a strategy of apathy towards him. Out of sight and out of mind is what the Dursleys practiced these days. Harry's control over thought manifestation and leglimency had grown significant enough that if he felt them wavering in their stance, he helpfully reinforced the revulsion they felt towards him. The boy who dreamed that the Dursleys would treat him like a family was long dead, and Harry even had real parents now.

Having identified all sources of inner conflict, Harry ruthlessly smothered them. That was better. He made his way out of the washroom and onto the king's cross platform. It might sound weird but the train that took all students to Hogwarts left from platform 93/4. The entry was a magical portal that existed in the barrier between platform 9 and platform 10. Wizards like to hide in the most populous muggle locations. Harry supposed it was part of a psychological desire to thumb the muggles. Muggles, since time immemorial had tried to exterminate the menace of magical population. So magicals won a symbolic victory by hiding right between them. The two sides were locked in an eternal game of peek-a-boo. Of course there were those who lashed back at the muggles in less legal ways, but the magical government tracked and imprisoned them whenever they could. Personally, Harry thought the entire power struggle was pointless. He hated hiding but thought it was a necessary evil. No one wanted to deal with the can of worms that would accompany going out into the spotlight. He felt that with a few well directed imperius curses the threat of muggles ever discovering magicals could be contained.

Harry made his way onto the platform only to be engulfed in a cacophony of voices. Anxious parents and melancholic students were to be seen whatever way he turned his eyes. For most, Hogwarts meant leaving behind their families. For Harry, Hogwarts meant freedom. Leaving for Hogwarts was a happier day than his birthday. A red steaming engine greeted him. Was the station located in a pocket dimension, or did the portal transfer him to a separate location? Harry took a mental note to research about the king's cross portal. One could say he was somewhat nerdy, though Harry would strongly disagree.

He made his way onto the train just as the train started moving and looked for his friends' cabin. He found them in the 5th car. "5 galleons say our Daph will be beating off boys this year asking her to Hogsmeade" the voice of Tracey Davis floated out. Tracey was a petite half-blood Slytherin in his year. She had brown eyes, blonde hair and could be described as energetic and bubbly, though her Slytherin cunningness was just lurking underneath. Harry considered her somewhat a leach, since she had attached onto Daphne Greengrass since their first day at Hogwarts. It was the way things were in the noble house of Slytherin. A pureblood's protection went a long way in reducing the amount of hazing a firstie went through. Harry personally had managed to avoid the worst of it after making it onto the Slytherin Quidditch team after the first week. Their head of house, Severus Snape didn't like rules being bent to accommodate Neville Longbottom on the Gryffindor Quidditch team so the entire first year batch of Slytherin got an impromptu Quidditch tryout. In hindsight, it might have been organized to give an excuse to allow Draco Malfoy on the team. Too bad Malfoy sucked so bad that he got outclassed on a Cleansweep 7 against Harry's rickety old Shooting Star that he got from the school broom shed.

Over the years, a true friendship had blossomed between the two girls. Daphne Greengrass was a pureblood from a prominent business oriented family. She had sea-green eyes and a head of raven black hair, not unlike his own. She had a cute angular nose, pale complexion and nice curves. Daphne Greengrass was Harry Potter's best friend. They had not gotten off to the best start, what with their blood differences, but their shared experiences over the years had made their bond unbreakable. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Harry would trust his life in Daphne's hands in a heartbeat. Their bond had evolved beyond regular friendship to where they considered each other family.

Before Daphne could retort, Harry decided to make his presence known. "Not 5 minutes onboard and you girls are already gossiping. Ohh hey Daph, you….. had a growth spurt ?" Harry was stumped at the site of Daphne. Summer had been kind to Daphne, since she seemed to sporting quite a bit of growth in the chest department. Earlier, Daphne was one of the hottest girls in their year but now, it was not even a competition. Harry's awkward comment was greeted with a groan from Daphne and a fit of giggles from Tracey.

"Thank you for noticing that I have grown tits, Harry. Merlin, you are such a boy!" Daphne replied.

"Don't pretend you don't like the extra attention Daphne, who knows someone special could even ask you to Hogsmeade now." Tracey winked suggestively at Daphne, earning a blush.

"Anyone I should know about? We wouldn't want our Daphne to start dating just about anyone now, would we?" Harry asked while settling his trunk in the overhead compartment.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Some secrets stay between us girls Mr. Potter" Tracey hit back at him while smiling coyly at Daphne.

"Just give it a rest Tracey. Tracey is being childish Harry. If there's someone I want to go on a date with, I will very well ask. It's not like anyone would be stupid enough to deny me." Daphne said imperiously. Daphne was a very proud girl alright.

"So how was your summer Harry? You didn't come to the Quidditch world cup finals. Daphne's father had reserved an entire section of a viewing box. You should've seen Krum dive after the Snitch; I thought I might get a heart attack just by watching him. The Irish won of course. Why didn't you come?"

"Breathe Tracey, breathe. Summer was like usual, nothing special. I read about the cup in the Daily Prophet, though. Quite a catchy after match celebrations, I must say. Nothing caps off a Quidditch world cup like a floating green skull in the sky." He sent an image of the Dark mark to Tracey's mind along with some worrying thoughts to distract her.

"We had left before that happened, though I think Daphne's father stayed back for finalizing some business agreements." Tracey finished lamely, too late realizing that she had put her foot in her mouth.

"He made it back fine, not that he was in any danger. Though I don't think he was expecting the mark in the sky. None of them were, scared the bejeesus out of them. I don't think he will be playing dressup anytime soon." Daphne finished bitterly. Daphne's father was a death eater who had bribed his way out of Azkaban after Voldemort's fall at the hands of Neville Longbottom.

"Hey, where's Blaise?" Harry quickly changed the topic. Her father was a sore topic for Daphne. It was safe to say that Daphne hated no one in the world as much as her father. Her father was the vilest man he had ever known.

"Dunno, probably boning some gullible Hufflepuff in one of the cabins. Hey, I am going to look for the food cart lady. Do you want me to grab something for either of you?" Tracey asked. Blaise was a pureblood of Italian descent. His mother had married seven times and seven times her husband had died. Lady Zabini was rumoured to have had a hand in most of those deaths since every marriage left her considerably wealthier. Growing up with a rotating cast of fathers had psychologically impaired Blaise where he hated commitment and kept going through a series of meaningless flings as a substitute for real relationship.

"No thanks, but do you mind dropping in on Tori. Just make sure she's all settled in and doesn't need anything." Daphne asked.

"Suuuure, I will do your sisterly duties so that you get more snog time with Harry." Tracey said in an innocent voice before bolting out.

"WE AREN'T DATING TRACE!" they both shouted in unison but Tracey was already gone. Daphne was once again blushing and he was quite sure that he was in a similar condition. Don't get him wrong, Daphne was absolutely gorgeous and he would have to be gay to not want to date her, especially when he was single. But Daphne represented a lot more to him than broom closet visits and a teenage romance. Their bond was just too precious for him to risk it on teenage feelings. He'd rather have her as a friend than risk everything for a few dates. Granted he was being a chicken, but then no one ever accused him of being a Gryffindor. Daphne was perhaps the one true relationship he had in the world and he just couldn't afford for awkwardness to mar their bond in case they didn't work out.

Daphne schooled her blush and then said, "You didn't answer Tracey's question Harry. Why didn't you come for the Quidditch finals? I was looking forward to seeing you." There she was, nothing escaped her attention. She knew him well enough to know when he was dodging.

"You know why, Daph. Your father wouldn't have liked seeing me there."

"His feelings do not matter Harry. And if this is about you being a half-blood then Tracey was there too." Daphne said heatedly.

"It's about me being a boy, Daphne. He would've misinterpreted our closeness and I'd rather you not suffer at the hands of that monster." Daphne seemed to shudder at his words before composing herself.

"It was surprisingly normal this time. I guess worries of Dark Lord's imminent return didn't leave father with enough time to molest me." Lord Damien Greengrass, head of the Greengrass family was a monster more vile than Voldemort himself. The mere thought of him brought bile to Harry's mouth. After the birth of his second daughter, the healers had declared that his wife, Lorraine Greengrass ne Selwyn was unable to bear anymore children. She would've met a fate not unlike Theodore Nott Sr.'s first wife if Selwyns weren't such a powerful and influential family. As such, the avenue of second marriage to produce a male heir was closed off to him.

That was when that monster turned his sights on Daphne. His plan was to get Daphne married to some weak, halfwit pureblood that he could control and then have her bear a fullblooded Greengrass heir. In his twisted mind, this was a way of producing the best possible Greengrass heir to protect the future of Greengrass name while removing the influence of other houses from their DNA. He had begun what he called teaching Daphne her place since she had turned eleven. Inappropriate touches became a common theme. Often, he would sneak into her bedroom at night to "play" with her. Often he would bare himself to her and make her touch him. He had left her virginity alone, since that was necessary if he meant to secure a pureblood marriage of any value. All his efforts to "protect" family name would be for naught if the perceived father of his child wasn't good enough. In that direction, he had already sent proposals to the Crabbe family for a betrothal. Too bad Lucius wanted Daphne to marry Draco to take control of Greengrass fortunes. If not for the Malfoy greed, Daphne would be betrothed to Vincent Crabbe by now.

So it was no surprise that Daphne was a traumatized girl when he had first met her. She had been molested by her father for years, while her mother was a mute spectator, preferring to ignore it and hoping that everything would turn out fine. As such, she wasn't the greatest believer in friendships, thinking that Harry and every other boy wanted to do stuff like her own father. How Harry had won her over was a story for another time though.

He moved besides Daphne to embrace her. "I promise I wouldn't let that monster hurt you Daphne."

"You can't promise that Harry, no one can. But I appreciate the thought nevertheless." Daphne said with a tone of melancholy that broke his heart.

"If I could, I would get you away from him right now but I have no legal leg to stand on. Unless you plan to run off into the wild with me, we have to endure him for a few more years until you are legally an adult."

"Maybe I would if you asked, Harry. But let's not talk about my shitty situation anymore. Tracey would be back any minute and I have something for you that I would rather she not see."

Harry's eyes lighted up. "Did you manage to get the Greengrass Grimoire for me Daphne?" Grimoire was a family journal updated by heads of houses every generation. It contained knowledge and spells that families guarded fiercely. Potter Grimoire, along with the rest of Potter family treasures were burnt down when Voldemort had set fire to the Potter Manor with his grandparents inside it. As such, Greengrass grimoire was Harry's way of "leveling up the playing field".

Daphne's face quickly acquired a pained expression. "I tried Harry, I truly did. But it's impossible. There are charms to strong and complex woven in for me to unravel. It's even impossible to take the grimoire out of the library room by anyone other than father. It can't be copied or taken notes from. The wards and enchantments protecting it are even beyond NEWT level."

Harry grew frustrated on hearing Daphne's words. "You know how important that Grimoire is Daphne. You saw how weak I was last term. If it wasn't for Neville fucking Longbottom, the dementors would've sucked out our souls."

"Don't sell yourself short Harry. You cast a corporeal Patronus, that too in our third year. How many people can boast of such a feat?"

"More than one, apparently if Neville's lion patronus is any evidence. And do you remember the size of that thing? It was big enough to drive the scores of dementors away. Mine on the other hand was barely able to contend with a couple of dementors. Now I owe a life debt to Longbottom, because I was too weak."

"Don't make this a dick measuring contest Harry. Longbottom is…. a freak of nature. He is like a bull, all power but no finesse. You need more than just raw power to win your battles. Besides, don't all three of us owe him a life debt?"

"No, I am pretty sure you and Sirius don't owe him anything. Life debts are weird in that way. Only direct action causes magic to acknowledge a Life debt. Since my stag patronus was protecting both you and Sirius, so technically, Neville's patronus saved just me. Magic doesn't take causality into account; otherwise every time someone stopped another person from going to a place where they might die, then a life-debt would be owed. So yeah, just me. Thankfully the guy is too much of an idiot to ever call it in. Not that I am going to remind him of it by acknowledging it. Let's just hope that he forgets all about it and I never have to worry about it."

"Don't be so paranoid Harry; Neville cannot control your actions by using a life-debt. Repaying the debt or not is entirely up to you."

"Not really, if he calls it in I will keep feeling subtle tugs by my magic to repay it. I can ignore it, sure but the fact that Neville can hold any sort of power over me pisses me off. Never again Daphne, never again will I be so weak that I have to rely on golden boy to save my ass. I promised you that I will protect you. How am I supposed to keep that promise if I am not even strong enough to save myself? Your father is much stronger than a horde of dementors."

Once again, he could see pain and despair flash across Daphne's face. Daphne had more or less resigned herself to her fate. But if he had anything to say about it, that man would never touch Daphne. "Don't worry about the Grimoire Harry; it isn't all it is drummed up to be. More often than not, it is page after page of egotistical family heads rambling page after page about how their inventions or even just ideas are the best ones in the Grimoire. I read atleast 50 pages on how my great-great grandfather invented a cauldron that could be heated or cooled to a desired temperature by pressing a rune. There are too many entries that are just old crones rambling on and on about how their achievement is that they purged muggles and mudb- I mean muggleborns. There are some good inventions there too, no doubt, but too few of those are unique spells that you can't learn from another tome. Grimoires are just a way for previous generations to tell their descendants how great they were and why they should be revered."

"That may very well be, Daphne but still; I would've liked to get a look at some of your family spells."

"You mean the ice spells? I learnt a few of them that were on my level of difficulty Harry so that I can teach them to you. But you have to promise me that you won't use them until absolutely necessary. If father ever finds out that you cast one of our signature spells, he'd know that I had taught it to you."

"You don't have to worry about it Daphne. You have my word."

Daphne nodded at him before waving her wand. A couple of books flew out of her trunk. "I brought these for you Harry; they should help you learn the more frowned upon branches of magic that aren't available in Hogwarts library."

Daphne handed him a couple of books. Harry saw that the titles were ' _Embrace your Dark Side by Wartimus Wilkins_ ' and ' _Blood Magic-The fount of power within by_ _Juniper Dread.'_ "These are some of the most prized collections of father's library Harry. Each of them costs atleast 10,000 galleons in the black market. They are banned by the ministry and carry an Azkaban sentence if found on anyone so be careful that Draco doesn't catch you with them. I'll get you more once you are through with them."

"Thanks Daphne, this means a lot to me!"

"I just don't want you to lose yourself to your hate, Harry. Dark Arts are not like regular magic. They feed off of your emotions, which causes more dark emotions to fester. It's a vicious cycle Harry that has consumed too many promising witches and wizards to count."

"It won't happen to me Daphne, I swear. But I cannot ignore this. I, Daphne, am not strong enough; last year proved that well enough. I have a long list of names that I have to tick off. Pettigrew is out there somewhere. Dumbledore might be a manipulative and biased old bastard but he did say that Voldemort isn't dead and might return someday. There are a few in Azkaban that I have to grant freedom permanently. All these people are much stronger than me, so I need the dark arts to somewhat reduce the gap. I will never have my revenge as I am like now. The time to be weak ends right now. I have been complacent for too long, now is the time for me to act."

Daphne's hands moved to take hold of his. "I know revenge is important to you, but please don't forget that there are people that care for you, I care for you. I don't think I can lose you Harry. I will promise you this, Harry. I will always stay by your side. If you fall in too deep, I will pull you back with my bare hands if I have to. I will not lose you, not to your darkness and certainly not to some death eater has been."

The tender moment that the two of them shared was broken by the sliding of the door. Daphne jumped back as if she was shocked. Standing at the entrance were Draco Malfoy and his two human plushies Crabbe and Goyle.

"Not interested in buying anything, why don't you try the cabins ahead" Harry mocked.

"I am not selling anything you half-blood filth. Daphne, I see you still keep this pseudo-orphan around. Feeling sad for the poor underprivileged is nice but you don't make them sit with you dear." Crabbe and Goyle broke into what he assumed was laughter though it easily could've been another comment. Sadly he didn't speak Troll tongue. Daphne just turned her nose up at Draco.

"Ohh well, not all of us can be rich enough to hire two male escorts. Though with how smart they are, they mustn't have cost much."

"They aren't my escorts Potter, they are my friends."

"That Daddy bought for you."

"What would you know about friends Potter? Go and stick with your loser club of Davis and Zabini. Davis has no father; Zabini has no father and guess what? You have no father. But I am sure you are the President of your loser club Potter, because you don't have a mother either." More laughter followed from the two baby trolls.

Alright, this guy was starting to piss him off now. Too bad he had half a brain unlike Ronald Weasley, who was too stupid to do anything other than shout and draw his wand. That made it easy for Harry to kick his ass; Weasley, like Malfoy, was pants at dueling. Harry was beginning to think that conceding verbal defeat and cursing the shit out of Malfoy wasn't such a big hit to his ego after all.

Draco's comment however had hit a nerve with Daphne, "At least he isn't a constant disappointment to his parents like you, Draco. I saw your mother at the Quidditch finals. Tell me, does she always look like she has shit under her nose or is it just when you are with her."

"How dare you Greengrass! When my father hears of this-"

"Tell your father how you got humiliated by a girl yet again, Draco. I don't care. But leave before I decide that cursing you will be less trouble than hearing your grating voice. How your parents survive in the same home as you for the entire summer is a mystery to me."

"Greengrass I am warning you-"

"Leave NOW! Like RIGHT NOW! Or they will be scraping pieces of you off the train tracks for miles." Daphne had withdrawn her wand and was pointing it in Malfoy's face with the telltale sign of an orange blasting curse on the tip. Boy, when Daphne got mad, she didn't hold back at all. Harry was conflicted between drawing his wand at Malfoy's group and stopping Daphne from getting expelled or worse. Thankfully, Malfoy and his cronies made it easier for him by almost tripping over each other to scamper off. Daphne shut the sliding door with a bang.

"Woah, calm down Daph. They're gone."

"Like you have a leg to stand on. You project your thoughts when you are pissed off and I can recognize which thoughts aren't mine. You wanted to curse him too."

"Yes, like make their boogers grow wings and scratch their faces, or turn their legs to jelly. Not drop their legs at Peterborough and heads at Edinburgh." ( **Actual train stations on the imaginary route of Hogwarts Express as claimed by Pottermore)**

"I just hate that pompous prick."

"You know he does that because he has a huge crush on you? This is his way of courting you."

"Shut up or you will be saying hello to my breakfast. He didn't see the books, did he?"

"No, of course he didn't. I disillusioned them the moment they stepped in. They wouldn't have seen them anyway, all three of them were too busy staring at your, umm, growth spurt."

"Gosh, this is going to be a problem with every boy at Hogwarts, isn't it?"

"Yes Daphne, your beauty is a curse; one that most girls would die for." Daphne just groaned in response.

Tracey eventually managed to find her way back to tease them some more. Blaise decided to drop by towards the end of their journey too; all too eager to describe in detail how Mandy Brocklehurst was a maiden no more. Harry gave it a month before Blaise grew bored of her. Daphne took him up on it with a 10 galleon bet, much to the chagrin of Blaise. Daphne didn't believe it would last a fortnight.

Rest of the journey was uneventful. Ronald Weasley dropped by once to loudly reprimand them for failing to control their housemates before Granger decided that he had made enough of a fool of himself and dragged him back to wherever Neville Longbottom was holding court. Considering how little attention they paid Weasley, yes the journey ahead was uneventful.

They made their way around the lake in horseless carriages. The lake threatened to pour out and drown their carriages, with how much it was raining. Harry's time flying in the rain meant that he knew the impervious charm well enough to keep the four of them relatively dry. After the cold and soggy journey, the warmth of the Great Hall was a welcome relief. Firsties got sorted after the old hat sang yet another different song; one of the Gryffindor ones loudly exclaiming how he almost drowned in the lake. Typical loudmouthed Gryff, too stupid to realize when he was knee deep in danger; he'd fit right in with the rest of his house.

It wasn't until it was time for Dumbledore's after dinner rambling that something important came along. He began by saying something about fanged Frisbees and Screaming Yo-yos which Harry mostly ignored as his eyes drooped but then his next statement jolted Harry awake.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"What?" Harry gasped. He looked around to see his fellow students similarly stumped. Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy— but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts—"

Dumbledore's address was interrupted by a deafening rumble of thunder and the bang of Great Hall doors. A gnarled old man with a wooden leg and spinning fake eye stepped in. It was like the Frankenstein just walked in. He looked around the hall before making his way to Dumbledore. A scarred hand outstretched which Dumbledore shook before the two started talking in whispers. It looked like Dumbledore was making some inquiries but he couldn't be sure. Once Dumbledore was satisfied, the scarred man took a swig from his flask before taking a seat next to Mcgonagall.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Moody" Dumbledore finished brightly in silence. It is customary for a new professor to be greeted with customary applause, if only to be polite. Moody got pindrop silence with not a single student or professor following Dumbledore's lead.

"So we get a zombie as teacher because Remus is unqualified. Good job Draco," Harry snarked bitterly. He liked Remus. He was a reminder of the family he could've had. The man had taught him Patronus charm though he was irked by the fact that he wasn't the only one in the year he taught that.

"That's more than a zombie, Harry. Dumbledore got the grim reaper to teach DADA this year," Daphne whispered from besides him. He turned towards her to see her face had gone white as snow.

"What's wrong Daph, you look worried?"

"That's Mad-Eye Moody, Harry, the man responsible for half the people sitting in Azkaban. He hates death eaters like a plague."

"Well that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"He isn't too sympathetic to their families. He is known to curse woman and children alike just to get to his target. Elizabeth Rosier's cousin had to spend a year at St Mungo's when he killed her uncle Evan Rosier. He and Dumbledore are supposedly good friends."

Harry was more than a little horrified. To curse woman and children, that was a low. But then, what else could be expected from one of Dumbledore's friends. The man himself was a ruthless manipulator, as he had witnessed over the years. His godfather wouldn't still be on the run if Dumbledore had decided to throw some weight around. He didn't even want to start on what Dumbledore did to push out a favorable narrative at the end of second year. Just goes to show you that the "light-sided" people were no saints and more often than not just as single-minded.

"You think he is here for some other reason?"

"Why would a decorated ex-auror want to teach students?"

"Money, maybe?"

"Cute Harry but Moody isn't lacking for money. No, it's more likely that he is here for some other reason. The man is deranged and a risk to anyone even remotely associated with the Death Eaters."

Before Harry could reassure Daphne Dumbledore continued his speech. "As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" one of the Weasley twins exclaimed loudly. Harrry never bothered with them enough to tell them apart. The outburst acted as a pressure release valve and most students broke out in laughter.

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar..."

McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er— but maybe this is not the time... no..." said Dumbledore, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament... well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely. "The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own Departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger."

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their shortlisted contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"A thousand galleons? That's a pittance. How bad is our economy doing if the ministry can just spare a thousand galleons for a competition at this level," Daphne fumed besides him.

"Queenie, a thousand galleons isn't a pittance for regular people like me. Besides, I believe the real prize is the reputation and exposure the champions will gain." Harry put in.

"Then they should very well acknowledge it by giving out a meaningful prize money. They are embarrassing us in front of the International Council of Warlocks. No self-respecting wizard or witch would risk their life for a thousand galleons."

"I don't know about that. Hey look, the Weasley's all seem to be drooling at the idea of getting their hands on a thousand galleons."

"Well of course they are Harry, they are Weasleys. What else do you expect? But I hope you aren't entertaining similar thoughts, right? The last time this tournament was held, half the spectators died along with all the champions." It was impossible to get anything past Daphne.

Before Harry could reply, Dumbledore continued, ""Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," he said, "the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age — that is to say, nineteen years or older — will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This" — Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious — "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over several mutinous faces. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under nineteen. "

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

"There you go; Dumbledore himself is making sure no underage student can participate. Nothing can go wrong now, I am sure," Harry said as they made their way to the Slytherin dorms in the dungeons.

"Mock him all you want Harry but you better not submit your name for participation. If it is a thousand galleons you need, I can lend it to you."

That was the wrong thing to say and to her credit, Daphne realized that immediately. Harry's face had immediately gone cold. "Thank you for your concern Ms. Greengrass but the House of Potter isn't gone so far as to need hand-outs from a student."

"Harry that's not what I meant-"

"Good night Daphne" Harry hurried past her to make his way for the common room on his own. He knew Daphne did not intend to insult him but Harry had always been a bit prickly about his family since he had found out he had one beyond the Dursleys. His family wasn't very well respected in pureblood circles on account of his father marrying a muggleborn. But they had been quite affluent before the war. The Potter Metals had a sort of monopoly over magical metal production with the Goblins of Gringotts being their only meaningful competition. Potter Metals profited off of the general public's wariness of goblins as well as beneficial laws from Wizengamot which severely restricted Gringotts.

All of that had come to an end when after the war, there was no one left to look after the company. The company did not have a board of directors and when there was no family left around, the control of operations fell to their accounts manager Flintaxe, a goblin. From there it was as easy as taking candy from a toddler to bankrupt the company and kill the only competition that Gringotts had. Freezing every knut for business expenditure without explicit approval from a missing heir meant that Potter Metals couldn't pay its employees. No employees meant no production and no revenue to pay off the expenses. In the end, the company was declared bankrupt and the goblins picked it up in an auction they organized for peanuts.

If it weren't for a Wizengamot ruling, the goblins would've even refused to release any funds for his parent's medical bills in the Janus Thickney Ward. Between his parents' medical bills and Potter Metals liabilities, there weren't any overflowing vaults left for him to inherit. Thankfully his trust vault was insulated from liabilities and mostly untouched. The golden days of the Potter family were behind it which made Harry all the more prickly at any perceived slight. He thought about going back and apologizing to Daphne for his coldness but then decided against it. He'd let her stew in guilt for now and talk to her in the morning. It would take her mind off of the tournament.

It took reaching the entrance for Harry to realize that he hadn't picked up the password from one of the prefects. He could wait for someone or…

" _$Open$"_ He enunciated in Parseltongue. The empty wall melted to reveal the Slytherin common room entrance. Some people had already made their way back. He hurried up to the fourth year male dormitory to find Blaise and Theodore Nott already there.

"Dude did you see Greengrass, man she has grown." Blaise was speaking to Nott.

"Gross, Blaise. She's our friend. Don't be so crass." Harry made his presence known. Their current disagreement notwithstanding, Harry wasn't going to allow the two boys to talk perversely about Daphne.

Nott immediately looked startled but Blaise continued, "Like you weren't watching! What size do you think they were? B-cups?" Blaise turned to him.

"You are the tits expert Blaise."

"They look good on her, she looks good. You two dating Harry?" Nott asked him. Nott could be described neutral. The two power centres in their year were him and Draco. He had Daphne, Blaise and Tracey to back him while Malfoy had Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson. Not, Lilith Moon and Millicent Bulstrode were the neutrals, drifting from one camp to another as the wind blew.

"No, Theo we are just friends." Harry said while getting ready for bed.

"This is your chance Theo. Ask her out but you have to share with us how those babies look. They look like they'd be nice to hold even though they are no D-cups. Guess who has D-cups?"

"Susan Bones?" Nott supplied.

"Yes, but more importantly Mandy Brocklehurst. Merlin those things are heavenly." Blaise had a way of working his "scores" into his conversation.

"You mean, you-"Nott asked.

"I am proud to report that earlier today, I, Blaise Zabini had the pleasure of introducing Mandy Brocklehurst to the sweet pleasures of womanhood," Blaise finished pompously.

"Go to sleep Blaise or I am going to kick your ass." Harry grunted.

"You do know what Malfoy and his possum are doing downstairs? They are influencing the firsties while you are going to bed. First impressions are important Harry."

"I know Blaise, but I can't bring myself to care much right now. Besides, knowing him, he'd turn more of them away than towards him." He knew he should go downstairs and cut Malfoy to size, but all he could think about right now was that in two months, Hogwarts would be hosting a deadly tournament and Harry Potter wanted in on it.

 **AN:**

 **Too much tits? Initially, there wasn't even one reference to tits and then I decided to include one and that opened the floodgates. This won't be a pattern in the following chapters. This chapter is exposition heavy so I decided to include them to make it a little lighter. I have tried to avoid walls of text as much as possible by working expositions into dialogue. I hate exposition as much as the next guy but it is necessary considering this is the first chapter and I am not writing the story from the beginning. Some exposition has been intentionally left out for further chapters. I understand that as a reader you will have tons of questions. I ask that you stay patient and all relevant details of the past will get exposed slowly.**

 **A personal quirk of mine is to mock established clichés of fandom. I myself will be adopting a few clichés but I will be mocking a fair few of them too. Call me a hypocrite if you will. Example- Goblins are honest bankers that are tripping over themselves to help anyone who says a phrase like "May your gold flows and your enemies bleed." As you can see in this chapter, I have projected Goblins as greedy and mean who won't miss the slightest technicality to screw someone** **over with zero sympathy. This view is actually canon since JK Rowling presents them similarly.**

 **I have also decided to present Malfoy as somewhat witty. I don't like a dumb Malfoy, it makes things too easy. I don't know what I did in this chapter will be considered bashing. Harry and most Slytherins have a POV which is quite different from Gryffindors and Dumbledore. As such, they will badmouth them. In my opinion, this isn't bashing but if you think so, then my apologies but this will continue.**

 **Dumbledore's speech is mostly directly paraphrased from the original Goblet of Fire. Sorry if that is off-putting but I needed the speech. Again, not going to be a regular occurrence except for when I need to do a canon info dump**

 **One important thing I would like to stress out is that just because Harry or someone else says something doesn't necessarily mean it's a fact. Everyone has their own biases. Case in point-Moody's reputation. Slytherins have their own take on the incident alluded to and so do the Gryffindors and really happened will be revealed in a couple of chapters.**

 **I will be answering any questions you have in AN here so if you have a question, please leave a signed review or atleast mention a penname. Quite difficult to address a concern if you are named "Guest". Lastly, subscribe and leave your reviews. It helps me grow as an author.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Welcome back. Thanks for all your reviews and glowing praises. Adrestia is the Greek Goddess of Vengeance. Her name means 'She who cannot be escaped'. She is the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. Greek mythology has the gods bestow their favour on some mortal who is then known as their champion. In this story, Harry will be driven by a sense of vengeance. He will have characteristics of both Ares and Aphrodite.**

 **One commentor complained about my other story not being updated. The thing is, I am having some trouble in deciding how I want a particular plot point to play out in Sorcerer Prince and then I had an idea about this story. So I will update this story for some time before I switch back to Sorceror Prince. I have not abandoned it so don't worry.**

 **Answering reader questions:-**

 **Dark Lord Potter Black: I mentioned in chap 1 that Harry's parents are alive and admitted in St. Mungo's permanently. So there is no question of resurrecting live people. For Adrestia, read the note above.**

 **Magnuss: (1)No system really. This won't be a politics heavy fic. I am somewhat biased towards the Ancient and Noble system. In this fic, there are some influential families with seats on Wizengamot, that's it. Potters aren't there on Wizengamot.**

 **(2) Sirius is on the run. He is a fugitive so Harry can't just go and live with him just yet. His arc will follow canon though so Harry will live with him next summer possibly.**

 **(3) Leglimency doesn't mean mind control, just mind reading. Thought projection also cannot rewire brain, just put errant thoughts in someone's mind with them having full power to ignore the suggestion. It is basically the power of suggestion.**

 **Mystolan: Without giving too much away, I'd say I agree with your point of view.**

 **Warning:** Somewhat graphic and disturbing scene, viewer discretion is advised.

 **Chapter 2**

The world was shrouded in darkness with only a thin slit of light bisecting the dark envelope. Voices drifted into his ears, voices of absolute terror and uninhibited glee. Harry recognized this place intimately; he was in his personal hell.

"Please let us go, I beg of you. I will give you whatever you want, just let us go." The familiar voice of a man begged.

"Ickle Jamie is scared for his mudblood wife. But Bella needs something from Jamie, yes she does. She needs the Potter boy for her lord. Will Jaime tell her?" The insanity filled voice of Bellatrix Lestrange reached his ears. The woman was the right hand of Voldemort and more than a little bent.

"He's not here; he's at a friend's place. I swear he's not here."

"You take us for fools you blood traitorous cunt? The homenum revelio charm Bella cast before we entered revealed 2 adults and 1 child before the child disappeared. So tell us where the boy is or you won't like the consequences." The voice of Rudolphus Lestrange was heavy and rough. Harry imagined him to be a tall brute.

"I am telling you..aaaaahhhhhh" His father's voice was cut short as someone murmured Crucio.

"Had enough?"

"Hnnnh… hnnnh…. I… am not giving up my son."

"Crucio"

"Crucio"

"Crucio"

On and on they cursed him. Usually by now, Harry would start shouting, trying to attract their attention to tell them that he was here in the cupboard, that they should stop torturing his father. But he was used to this by now. He kept listening with a dead expression on his face.

"He doesn't know, please you have to stop." THWACK. The speaker was slapped hard in the face.

"We didn't speak to you mudblood so keep your filthy mouth shut."

"He doesn't know where Harry is, I do. Torture me, leave him alone." His mother continued pleading.

"Aww, look the mudblood is feeling left out. Don't you worry Ms. Mudblood; Bella will take care of you. Crucio"

Now his mother's screams filled the air. Harry listened with numbed emotions. He knew he couldn't do anything. This was a dream and he was a prisoner here.

"Scream mudblood, scream for me. YESSSSSS. Crucio" Rudolophus Lestrange joined the fun.

"Sto….p…please…don…don't hurt her" his father groaned hoarsely. His throat was raw from screaming earlier.

Bella took the curse off and whispered," You ready to tell me your secret Jaime?"

"I…I won't"

"Crucio"

"Bella stop, if you keep doing this they will both lose their minds. We have a mission to accomplish" the voice of Barty Crouch Jr acted as the voice of reason and finally made Bella stop to give his parents a momentary respite.

"This is your last chance blood traitor, tell us where the brat is and maybe we will grant you two quick painless deaths." Rudolphus Lestrange threatened.

"Hey he's trying to say something" a somewhat meeker voice came. This was the younger Lestrange, Rabastan.

A short pause and then, " Aaah, the bastard spit in my ear. That does it, now I will make you wish that you had complied. Rabbi, show James's mudblood whore what a real man feels like."

Harry's stoic exterior broke. He had lived way too many times through this part of his nightmare. He wanted to wake up. He couldn't bear to hear anymore because he knew what was coming up. He tried to bite his tongue but his teeth wouldn't move. He tried to strangulate himself but his arms wouldn't rise. He was trapped helpless in his nightmare.

"No…please don't.. curse me…stop" his father raged and begged and pleaded to deaf ears.

"Silencio" Barty Crouch Jr silenced his father.

"Barty don't do that, I want to hear ickle Jamie scream. I know, Rabbi, let's have a competition. Let's see which one of us can make Jamie scream louder" Bellatrix spoke in her annoying baby voice.

He heard clothes being torn.

"Look away James, I love you. Look away please" his mother's broken voice had the effect of breaking Harry's heart and mind. He started shouting, begging, pleading but his voice just stuck to his throat. He wished he could tell them where he was just so they would grant his parents a moment's respite.

"Noooo, aaahhhhhhhhhh" his father's anguished screams were like nails digging into his skin.

"The mudblood has a tight cunt. Now I know why James turned traitor. Look James, look how I take your mudblood whore." The sounds of thrusts were somehow magically enhanced. The screams of his father continued, both of anguish and from Bellatrix's torture curse. Harry wanted nothing more than to die and put an end to this pain but like always, death eluded him once again. There was no escape from this torture. He was truly in hell.

"Phew, I am done but this bitch is still cold as fish. You want a turn Barty?" Rabastan Lestrange asked.

"No thanks"

"Suit yourself. Here Rudy, she's all yours."

"Hey, why did James stop screaming? Damnit Bella you broke him" Rudolphus Lestrange admonished his wife.

"Aww shucks looks like Bella won. Don't be mad at Bella. She was just having some fun. We still have little Ms. Mudblood, we can ask her."

"Alright, but I want my turn with her first."

Once again the sounds of thrusting violently began. "Watch me mudblood, watch your betters. You pranced around in Hogwarts like you were better than us. This is the reality; you are nothing more than an upjumped whore. This is your place, a cum slut to be violated for the pleasures of purebloods like me. Fight me, shout, beg. No one will save you from your just rewards today. Today is the day of your reckoning."

Rape was no impediment for Bellatrix as she continued to cast torture curses at his mother. Harry begged for death, anything to make it stop. Tears streamed down his face as he sat helplessly inside the cupboard, a mute spectator to his mother's violation.

Rudolphus finished with a roar. "That was good. You sure you don't want a go Barty?"

"I'd rather not." Barty Crouch Jr. replied while his mother continued to scream.

"I wouldn't mind another go Rudy."

"You are a horny little bugger Rabbi. Have fun. Bella go easy on the curses. We can't have her broken too."

After what felt like eternity, his mother's screams stopped. "Why is she so silent? What the fuck Bella, she is broken too." Rudolphus Lestrange's irritated shout came.

"Did she break? Damn, I thought Ms. Mudblood would last longer. Ohh well, no point crying over spilt milk. Let's go look for the boy." Bellatrix replied.

"Hey Rudy, can I keep the bitch?"

"Rabbi she's broken now. What good will a mute with no feelings be?"

"Her cunt's tight enough."

"Fine, we'll take her along when we leave, look for the boy for now."

"Where are you Harrikins? Bella's got a surprise for you!"

Harry woke up screaming. He could feel tears still leaking from his eyes. This was the parting gift that the dementors left for him, his most horrid memory. Exposure to the dementors dislodged the memory of torture and rape of his parents from some forgotten recess of his mind. Thanks to his occlumency, there was no way he could forget any details now forever. He could have himself obliviated, or drink a dreamless sleep potion, but he chose not to. That would be an insult to his parents' sacrifice. Every night he suffered made his resolve for vengeance stronger. He'd suffer for now in silence. The ones responsible would suffer just as he suffered every night he had this dream, Harry vowed to himself.

No one had heard him in his pathetic state, thanks to the wards he had placed around his bed. He was a fair hand at warding, if he said so himself. Arithmancy usually had them studying ward and spell makeups and Harry loved tinkering with existing wards and spells.

Harry went through the motions of getting ready with a mechanical regularity. After a night like that, his emotions were in too much flux to really concentrate for a while. He didn't have the dream every night, but it was often enough. This was why he had to change this year and with Daphne's help, the first step had been taken. He needed to find a way of hoodwinking whoever this 'impartial judge' was. A champion in the Triwizard Tournament meant Harry being placed in a life or death scenario. No better place to learn than that. If Harry couldn't make it out of a highly regulated ministry tournament alive, then he might as well just give up on his dreams of vengeance. The Triwizard Tournament was going to be a crucible through which a stronger Harry would emerge, one with the tools and the capability to strike down his enemies. Unrestricted access to the "Restricted Section" of the library was just a cherry on top.

He made his way to the common room to find Daphne waiting for him. Their argument from last night came to his mind. Daphne's surface thoughts reeked of guilt and fear of loss. She made her way to him with her shoulders hunched up and her eyes downcast.

"Ready to go for breakfast, Harry?" she asked in a meek voice.

"Sure, let's go."

"Harry, I…I wanted to say…. I was out of line and I wanted to…"

"Don't bother, there's nothing to forgive."

Daphne looked up with hope and apprehension shining in her eyes. It looked like she couldn't believe her ears. He just smiled at her and the smile he got from her in return was like a 'lumos maxima'. Her entire face lit up with happiness. Gods, she looked beautiful when she smiled like that.

He saw her smile fall off her face as she moved very close to him. What did she have in mind? She wasn't going to kiss him, was she? There was no need to risk what they had. Daphne's hands reached up to his face and Harry scrunched his eyes shut. He wouldn't mind kissing her; she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met. But he didn't want to do it either; there was something way too precious at stake. He'd rather risk his life than their friendship.

"Your hair's a mess Harry. Did you even bother combing them? And why is your tie so lose." Ok, she didn't mean to kiss him. All was right with the world.

"You are spoiling my bad boy cred Daphne" Harry joked.

"Stop acting like a ruffian Harry. No girl likes a vagabond."

"Alright mother, I will pay more attention and dress impeccably. If you must know, it was a rough night."

Immediately Daphne's eyes softened. "Was it the dream again?" Daphne asked as her hands swept through his hair to try and settle them into anything resembling a human hairstyle.

"Yes"

"Better or worse?"

"About the same"

"You should drink the dreamless sleep potion. I can brew it for you if you want?" Daphne was a prodigy when it came to potions. She said it was the one good thing she got from her father whose main business was selling rare potions and potion ingredients. He on the other hand was pants at potions. He usually ended up either partnering with her or skimming off of her answers in tests and homework. If left to himself, he'd end up brewing a permanent sleep potion rather than the dreamless sleep potion.

"No, I want to remember. I don't want to sully their sacrifice by resorting to potions to forget their pain."

"There's no reason to torture yourself Harry. I am worried about you, you know." She reached over to fix his tie. She was close enough that he could smell her vanilla shampoo in her hair. If he reached out, he could snake his arms around her slender waist and pull her body flush against his. If he tilted his head just a bit, he could capture those red glossy lips of hers.

Before he could respond, a nasal voice broke their moment," Ohh look, Greengrass is playing wife for the half-blood again. Good job tarnishing the good name of your family by whoring yourself here in the common room." It was Pansy Parkinson, a girl in their year along with Millicent Bulstrode, another one pf their batchmates. Pansy was a pureblood like most Slytherins and dead set on shacking Draco Malfoy. Now if only Malfoy was just as interested in her, the two of them would have a fairytale romance. Too bad Malfoy had his buggy little eyes on Daphne. Milly was a stocky girl with a face marred with pimples. She had a square heavyset jaw and big arms and legs. She told everyone she had big bones but Daphne suspected there was some giant blood in her family tree.

"Hey Porky, Malfoy isn't here" Daphne replied nonchalantly.

"Tell me Daphne, how upstanding wizards like Greg are supposed to accept betrothals that your father begged for when they see you sullying yourself with a filthy half-blood all the time? " Pansy harped in her irritating voice.

"Ohh I wouldn't want to take Goyle away from Malfoy, who'd suck his little pecker then? Merlin knows it won't be you" Daphne taunted back about the non-existent relationship between Pansy and Draco earning sniggers from Millicent.

"Very funny, Daphne. I will have you know that Draco isn't small." Pansy glared back at the sniggering girl to make her stop.

"Honey, looks like you are getting delusional now."

"You wouldn't know what a good wizard is like. That's why you settle for a pathetic excuse like this." Pansy spit out while looking at Harry.

"Pansy, I am standing right here. And didn't you tell Milly that you'd do me if you could make sure that no one ever found out?" Immediately Milly turned red.

"Why, I never…" Pansy stuttered trying to deny his allegation.

"Sure you did, after last year's Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. You said and I quote 'His bum looks delicious on that Firebolt'. Now, I have no objection to you fantasizing about my 'bum' but don't be so mean to me."

Pansy spluttered with denials but Daphne just smirked at her,"Well,well,well. Aren't we little Ms. Hypocrite. Come along 'hubby', let's go eat breakfast." Daphne said as she grabbed hold of Harry's hand and dragged him out of the common room.

"How did you know about that?" Daphne asked once they were out of Pansy's earshot.

"You forget that I have a gift Daphne, it's called leglimency."

"Really? You couldn't use your 'thought projection' thing to get her to leave?"

"Trust me, I tried. The girl's more bull-headed than she looks." Pansy had ignored all his suggestions to seek out Draco without much thought. Her motive to make Daphne feel miserable had been too strong to be distracted.

"You don't know the half of it. I am the one who shares a dorm with her. I have to hear her whine every time Draco looks at another girl. It doesn't help when most of the time I am the said girl. I have to hear about every sordid fantasy she thinks of. That girl talks about nothing but Draco. She's part of the reason I find the boy so repulsive." Daphne ranted as they finally reached the great hall.

"Who's repulsive? Surely not our youngest seeker?" Tracey asked as the two of them took seats adjacent her.

"Malfoy" They chorused together.

"You two are so cute when you do that. You sure you are not dating?"

"No Tracey, we are not." Once again they chorused.

"You make it too easy." Tracey giggled.

"Anyway, where's Blaise?" Harry asked.

"Where else other than getting some extra snog time with Mandy BigTits. He said he'd go to Ancient Runes directly." Tracey sounded a little bitter. Was she hoping to date Blaise? Harry decided not to let his mind wander in that direction. Tracey and Blaise would be too volatile a combination.

Daphne grabbed a sandwich and got up, "Alright then, I am off. Harry any chance you decided to get a little serious and take a useful subject like Ancient Runes this year rather than the easy grade?"

"The day I find a dead language useful will be the day you see me in Ancient Runes Daphne."

"It's not dead, and it has its uses. Anyway, I will see you guys in Charms." With that, Daphne left.

Harry and Tracey made their way for Hagrid's hut on the edge of the forbidden forest. Hagrid was previously Hogwart's groundskeeper but had been offered a teaching position as of last year. Now he was a teacher cum groundskeeper. To call him a little rough around the edges was an understatement. He almost managed to get himself fired after just one class last year when one of the hippogriffs he brought to class kicked Malfoy in the arm. Don't get him wrong, the git totally deserved it but perhaps Hagrid could do with a more humane risk assessment. But Harry knew that Hagrid was a good person at heart. He was a friend of his parents and Harry often found himself visiting the man in his hut during the year enjoying his tea. The rock cakes not so much.

Today, Hagrid decided to introduce them to a hitherto unknown species that Hagrid christened as the Blast-Ended Skrewts. The things could blast, sting and bite them at the same time. They were supposed to feed the little killing machines. Harry did not have the heart to tell Hagrid that someone had swindled him into buying the failed results of someone's illegal cross-species breeding. His love for Hagrid meant that he was the one to grab piles of frog liver to feed the skrewts while his partner Tracey made herself look pretty.

"You know you could've helped me." Harry groused as they made their way back to the castle.

"Ohh shush Harry, you shouldn't complain about a bit of work, it helps develop character. Besides, ladies like a man who doesn't mind getting dirty." Tracey added flirtatiously.

"Yes Trace, you were only looking out for me when you made me do all the work. Silly me."

"Correct. Now would you mind carrying my bag to Charms classroom?" Tracey asked making an innocent face.

"Get stuffed"

They found Daphne and Blaise in the Charms corridor.

"Hey Harry, how was CoMC?" Blaise asked.

"Ohh hey Blaise, thanks for being a good friend and waiting for me to go to breakfast together."

"No need to be snarky Harry, you were sleeping like a babe and I was hungry. Besides, I was not going to risk my life touching your bed curtains to wake you up. Merlin knows what kind of spells you have on that thing." Blaise defended

"Whatever traitor."

They reached the charms classroom to find the Ravens were already there. Filius Flitwick, a professor of goblin descent, was their charms professor. He made them review the charms they had learnt last year. Daphne earned Slytherin 10 points for being the first to display them all. After all, the girl had the second best scores in their year, just behind Hermione Granger. A second part of the reward was that at the end of the class, Flitwick asked Daphne's help to reset the class. Harry, being the good friend he was, offered to stay back and help while the rest of the class left for lunch.

When they finally caught up with Blaise and Tracey on the lunch table, they could sense something had occurred. The gleeful looks on the Gryffindor faces were Harry's first guess. The terrified face of Slytherins was his second. Not seeing Draco Malfoy around sealed the deal.

"Hey did you guys hear about Malfoy?" Blaise asked as soon as the two of them took their seats for lunch.

"He got expelled?" Harry guessed.

"He died?" Daphne guessed.

"Oh, that's dark, Daphne"

"You are saying that to be polite, deep down you wish it were true."

"Stop it you two, now is not the time for you two to do your adorable thing. Malfoy got turned into a ferret." Tracey said, putting thei argument to rest.

"How did that happen? Did Pansy finally kiss him?" Harry asked.

Blaise got a constipated look. "What? How would kissing him turn him into a ferret?"

"Well, there's this muggle story about a frog turning into a Prince when a Princess kissed it. So I figured that this was the opposite of that. Here Malfoy turned into a ferret when a tramp kissed him."

"Muggles have weird tales. What's the moral supposed to be? Go around kissing frogs?" Daphne always thought the muggles were weird. Harry blamed it on the conservative upbringing.

"I'll explain the story to you in detail later Daph. Blaise, we need more details!"

"I would if you two would give me a chance! Honestly, most of the time you two are in your own world. Anyway, Malfoy was being Malfoy, you know, taunting Longbottom and Weasley. They got into an argument about the waist of Weasley's mom, I think. Well next thing you know, Mad-Eye Moody cursed Malfoy to turn into a ferret and then made him bounce all around the yard."

"Perfect!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Perfect? No! That's cruel. Even Malfoy doesn't deserve that. What is Moody thinking cursing students?"

The rest of the lunch was spent arguing whether Moody's decision reflected his biased behavior or did the git deserve it. After lunch, they again split up, with Harry and Daphne leaving for Arithmancy while Tracey and Blaise left for divination.

"Enjoy your lessons nerds while we go for a well deserved nap in Divination." Tracey sang while Daphne flipped her the bird.

The two of them reached the Arithmancy classroom. Harry sat down on a seat at the backend of the room and pulled Daphne into one next to him.

"You know it wouldn't hurt you if we sat a little towards the front for once." Daphne huffed

"As a matter of fact, it would. The woman's too loud, she hurts my ears." Professor Vector used a variation of the sonorous charm in class to make sure she was audible even at the back. How Granger hadn't lost all auditory functions in the last one year was beyond him.

"Talk of the woman and she's here. Maybe she will outlive Dumbledore, destroying many generations of ears." Professor Vector entered the class with a smile.

"I hope everyone had a nice summer. Last term we studied the basics of spell creation. We focused on the 5 primary, 15 secondary and some of the tertiary blocks used in devising a spell. These individual blocks are together called spell equation and by now I expect you all to identify the major and minor blocks whenever you see a spell equation."

"We also had an end term project where you had to design simple spells using 1 or more primary blocks. I would now like to discuss some of the good ones I saw at the end-of-term exams. Ms Granger's book sorting project was a creative project. It showed a lot of flexibility and could be modified to sort all kinds of non-magical items. As such, it was marked highest. Mr Potter and Ms Greengrass's project was also something deserving a mention. The 'Acceleration' spell was primarily oriented towards dueling. Where the spell lacked in adaptability, it more than made up for it with its originality and complexity. The two of them were the only group in class to formulate a spell equation containing a tertiary block. As such, they were marked second. Mr Boot and Ms Patil's project, the 'Disco-lights' spell might not be the most original or the most flexible, but it showed their good grasp on the fundamentals and they were able to chain together the most number of repeating primary blocks in their spell equation. As such, they were marked third in class. I would urge the rest of you to take a look at their spells if they are willing. It will help you…"

Harry tuned their Professor off. She was boring. He was more interested in talking to Daphne so he turned towards Daphne and whispered, "I personally thought Granger's project was shit. She just modified the 'Pack' spell to pack just the item mentioned."

Daphne didn't look pleased talking in the middle of the lecture. "Harry shush. You will get us in trouble."

"Ohh please, Vector is too busy drooling over Granger. First place my arse, I mean, where does she get off comparing our spell to that plagiarized piece of crap from Granger."

"Don't forget she was the only one in class to finish a project alone. Her project wouldn't have been so crappy if she had me working with her."

"Like that was a setback. Partners were what made the project harder. Take us for example. You worked on our 'focus block' and we have a focus penalty of 10. You realize how bad that is, don't you? That spell can't be used in duels. With such a shitty focus penalty, all an opponent has to do is think about not accelerating to snatch control of the spell from you, something that is the first thought in the minds of a suddenly accelerating person."

"5 points from Slytherin for speaking in class Mr. Potter. Please pay attention. Now, as I was saying, you all studied the levitation spell in first-year charms. Can anyone help me identify the primary blocks in the spell equation?" Professor Vector asked. Immediately Granger's hand shot up, along with half of her arse from her seat. That girl was always way too excited to answer the teacher.

"Yes Ms. Granger"

"It's a focus based spell, so there's the focus block. There's also the power block, which allows us to regulate the amount of power to be transmitted through the spell. Now, as for secondary blocks,…." Harry once again tuned out the conversation when he felt Daphne's hand tug hard at his own.

"Don't you dare crap on my work, Potter. The focus penalty is the least I could manage when you give me such shitty power transmission ratio with your power block." Daphne furiously whispered back to him.

"Look, all I am saying is that the spell is no good. Any moron can break through it."

"I don't agree. It may not have turned out to be as grand a spell as you had originally envisioned, but it has its niche usage. You forget we designed that spell with just one year of spell creation knowledge."

"Age is no excuse for mediocrity Daphne!" Harry spoke a little too heatedly.

"10 points from Slytherin for talking amongst yourselves, Mr. Potter and Ms. Greengrass. Do you not consider what we are doing here worthy of your attention Mr. Potter?" Vector seemed angry at being ignored.

"Apologies, Professor." Harry replied a little subdued.

"Maybe you would like to answer my next question? What modifications would you propose to modify the levitation charm into the 'Mobiliarbus charm'?"

Damn it, now he had to make an effort if he didn't want a detention. Granger looked eager to answer with her arm shooting upwards. He cleared his throat before speaking, "The levitation charm, 'Wingardium Leviosa' is a focus based charm, which means the caster has to continuously focus on where he wants the levitated object to move. The 'Mobiliarbus Charm' on the other hand has a predefined start and end location for the object. So the first change would be to replace the focus block with a memory block where we store the end location."

He took a deep breath. Granger looked like she'd fall out of her seat with how high she was trying to raise her arm to answer the question. He continued, "The second change would be in the power block. Levitation charm has an open ended power sub-equation which allows the caster to supply as much power as desired. The power can also flow into an open-ended power block continuously as long as the caster feeds it. There is a lack of the 'storage' secondary block too. So, I would change the boundary conditions to make it a close ended power block and add a storage secondary block there to store the power necessary to move the object to the destination."

Professor Vector stared at him for a full minute with thin lips before speaking, "That is a good approach. You missed a 'variability' tertiary block on the 'storage' secondary block to change the size of storage block for a more elegant and efficient solution but your approach will still work for most cases provided the 'storage' block can handle large power storage. 15 points to Slytherin." Granger looked positively furious.

"And we are even" Harry mumbled, earning a smile from Daphne.

"All right, we'll meet again next week. Since the homework was going to be what Mr. Potter answered, so you are free this weekend. I'd suggest you have a look at the spell equations of both Levitation charm and Mobiliarbus charm. Thank you." Professor Vector said before dismissing them for the day.

"That was some lecture"

"Yes, you lost us points. You showed off and gained those points back. I'd call that just about a usual lecture." Daphne mocked.

"Gee Daph, you don't have to bust my balls."

While the two of them were bantering on their way back to the great hall, Granger caught up to them. "That was no way to behave in the lecture. Some of us want to actually learn, you know." Granger said with a huff.

"You are right Granger, people shouldn't talk during lecture. Much like they should learn to mind their own damn business!" Harry replied a bit heatedly.

"Well, someone has to say something to you!" Granger was in no mood to back down it seemed.

"Really? And what compelling reason did you have, pray tell, when you and your two nosy friends decided to poke your nose in my business last term?" The rest of the students had cleared off. The corridor was deserted apart from the three of them which made Harry comfortable to take this turn in their conversation.

Granger looked taken aback by the sudden change of topics. "I…we..we didn't know. We just saw you and Daphne going inside the Whomping Willow and figured…"

"Figured that you'd come and play hero?" Harry cut her off to mock her.

"Hey, we thought you were up to something! We were right, weren't we? What you and your godfather were about to do was a crime!"

"It's no crime to kill a dead man. More importantly, it was none of your goddamn business." Harry's anger was getting out of his control again. Every time he saw one of the golden trio, he was reminded of how because of them, the man responsible for all his misery slipped right out of his hands.

"But…but… it's wrong!"

"I'll tell you what's really wrong." Harry got right into Granger's face. She had backed up all the way to the corridor's wall. "Wrong is my innocent godfather still on the run for a crime he did not commit. Wrong is the man responsible still drawing breath, thanks to you three. You get on your high horse, judging what's wrong and what's right, like you have any right to judge. Granger let me tell you this, there's no wrong or right. There's just power. Those who have it make their own right and those who don't, cower behind someone else's right."

Harry stared directly into Granger's brown eyes. He could see how innocent she was, still shielded from the ugliness of the world. She had a nice loving family, and picture perfect friends. She hadn't lived for a day in his world; she could never understand what he dealt with on a daily basis. Harry wished he had her luxury of naivety.

A shout broke him out of his thoughts. "Hey, get away from her you slimy snake." It was the youngest Weasley boy. He looked to the side to see Weasley and Longbottom running in their direction. He backed off a little and Granger used the opportunity to put some space between the two of them.

"Hermione, that git didn't hurt you, did he?" Weasley showed concern for his female friend. Was it possible that the boy was holding a torch for the nerd?

"Ohh look, Weasley's come to play hero. What rotten luck Granger, your knight in shining armour doesn't even know which end of the wand to hold." Harry mocked.

"Shut up you arse, I know very well which end of the wand to hold."

"Really, could've fooled me with how many times you cursed yourself in second year." Daphne snickered on hearing his words, making Weasley even more angry.

"Things have changed since second year, do you want me to show you how I use my wand now."

"Gross, Weasley, there are girls around. Shut your crass mouth." Mocking Weasley was too damn easy. Ronald looked confused for a moment before he realized the innuendo in his words. He blushed like a tomato and pulled his wand out.

"Stop twisting my words, that's not what I meant. You are just jealous because now that Moody's here, the days of you snakes doing as you pleased are over. If you curse me, Moody's going to turn you into a ferret, just like your friend Malfoy."

"Real brave Ronald, real brave. You are truly living up to your house's words by hiding behind the cloak of a professor."

"Shut it snake, what would you know about bravery. You are all just evil cunts, waiting to bite us in the back. But not anymore, your days are over." Ronald spit out.

"You know what, I will award your bravery. Go ahead, I'll give you a free shot at me. I won't even draw my wand. Take your best shot." Harry finished by raising his hands in a come hither pose. Ronald looked confused at his open invitation, fearing a trick. He seemed unsure about attacking an unarmed opponent, the fool. He looked back at Longbottom for confirmation who nodded back. Ronald turned back squaring his shoulders, gritting his teeth and getting ready to curse him.

"Petrificus.."

"Accelo" a voice intoned as a blue jet of light raced towards Ronald and hit him square in the chest. His body raced towards the corridor sidewall and his head met the stone with a very loud crack. The boy passed out immediately.

Granger and Longbottom both went for their wands.

"Expelliarmus" Daphne disarmed Granger before she could even wrap her fingers around her wand. Longbottom was much faster on the draw. After last term's power display with a patronus, Harry wasn't willing to bet on a magical duel. Besides, he didn't trust his magic with him owing the boy a life debt. So he didn't bother drawing his wand. He moved fast, grabbing Longbottom's arm to point his wand out of his face while using the other arm to punch him in the throat. He pinned the boy against the corridor wall and stared into his eyes.

"You said you'd give him a free shot." Granger gasped as Daphne held her at wand point.

"I did, but Daphne promised nothing like that. Thanks for cursing him Daph. Turns out you were right. There are some morons against whom the curse is viable." Daphne just replied with a sweet smile on her face. He'd be hearing the 'I told you so' speech later. He turned back to the boy-who-lived.

"Now you listen here Longbottom. I am tired of your shit. You stay out of my way this year, or you'll wish you had. I am not fooling around. If you get in my way again like last term, I am putting you down. You hear me?"

Longbottom stared back at him with loathing shining in his eyes. Harry realized the boy couldn't speak with his arm pressing down on his throat. "Nod once if you understand." Very slowly, the boy nodded.

"Good, then we are clear. You stay out of my way, and I won't interfere with whatever moronic things you three get up to. Now, you'd want to take Freckles here to Madam Pomfrey before he loses whatever little brain he has in that head of his." Harry snatched Longbottom's wand so he couldn't curse him in the back. He threw it to the other end of the corridor. Daphne followed suit before following him out of the corridor.

"That was…intense" Daphne commented.

"Worth it to keep them off my back. I have plans and I don't want them interfering." Harry replied. "But damn did it feel good to intimidate the boy-who-lived."

 **STORY TRIVIA:**

 **ACCELO SPELL: Accelerates the target towards a pre-defined solid object at increasing speeds. As the focus penalty is high(10), it is very easy for the victim to wrest control of the spell from the caster.**

 **FOCUS PENALTY: Ratio of the concentration needed behind the caster's intent to execute a spell to the opponent's concentration to break the spell. Lower focus penalty means a strong and efficient spell while high focus penalty means weak or grossly inefficient spell.**

 **Need a BETA for this story so drop me a message if you are interested. As always, please leave your reviews.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:**

 **Magnuss: Harry isn't in the Tri-wizard tournament as of now. He expressed his desire to enter to himself. That's all there is to it as of now.**

 **Not many questions in the reviews so far. It means that either the plot is quite tightly knit and questions aren't arising or people aren't too interested. I hope it is the former. I will try to keep up this update schedule so expect the next chapter in 2 weeks.**

 **Chapter-3**

The next few days passed without much incident except for Professor Snape assigning detention to Longbottom for melting his sixth cauldron. If Harry was bad at potions, then Longbottom was pathetic. There was also the latent favoritism that Snape exercised which allowed him to get away with more mistakes than a typical Gryffindor, though Snape's largesse towards him didn't extend very far when compared to other Slytherins. He wasn't punished for the corridor incident which meant that the Gryffindors hadn't tattled on him. Overall, life was good.

Which was why he should've expected things to take a turn for the worse very soon. Thursday was greeted by every fourth year Slytherin with apprehension marring their faces. Not only did they have Transfiguration with Gryffs, they also had to deal with double DADA with Moody on the same day. Sometimes, Harry thought, Dumbledore intentionally designed the timetable to antagonize them.

"We're so screwed" Blaise said as the two of them made their way for the common room.

"It's going to be Ok, Blaise" Harry reassured his friend back.

They found Daphne and Tracey waiting for them in the common room.

"We are so screwed. Moody is going to curse us all!" Tracey moaned.

"You were saying Harry?" Blaise smirked at him.

"Cmon guys, it's not as bad. He can't curse us; he's a professor for Merlin's sake. For all his faults, Dumbledore won't hire someone who'd curse a fourth of the population on principle." Harry tried to reason with his friends.

"Yes, because Dumbledore is the epitome of good judgment; the same man who hired a possessed person for year one, a narcissistic numbskull for year two and, no offense to you Harry, a werewolf for year three. Yes, history has taught us there is no reason to doubt Dumbledore's judgment," Blaise added sarcastically.

"Let's just hope fourth time's the charm. Whining about it won't change anything. Let's just go, eat and get this over with" Daphne, like always, was the calming presence in their group.

"You all go on ahead, I will meet you in the great hall." Harry said

Blaise and Tracey quickly agreed, their hunger outweighing any curiosity they might have had. Daphne though had her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I can wait if you want, Harry."

"There's nothing to worry about Daph. I just forgot a book in the dorm. Go on, I will join you all in a jiffy." Daphne's expression showed that she didn't believe a word that came out of his mouth. She looked like she'd disagree with him, before she half nodded and left the common room.

Harry decided to approach the girl sitting alone on one of the couches. She was Harry's senior by three years. The girl had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. Her skin was very fair, almost translucent. Her lips were pouty, like they were made to be kissed. Her face was angular with a prominent chin, strong jawline and broad forehead. She was really pretty, but then again, Harry was a teenager. The hormones made every person with knockers look pretty. Hell, Harry thought Pansy Parkinson was cute too; it was her voice he hated.

"Hey Liz, got a minute?"

The said girl looked up and immediately blushed. Harry guessed he had a similar color on his face. The two of them shared a brief history though they didn't pursue it once both of them had come out of the firewhiskey induced haze. A half-blood like him could never be with a pureblood like Elizabeth Rosier, that much was made as clear as crystal to him. Marcus Flint had ensured the lesson stuck.

"Ohh hey Harry, where are your friends?"

"I could ask you the same!"

"Ohh, I am just finishing my Charms summer homework. We are due today. You wouldn't happen to know much about the Protean charm?"

"Not a clue, sorry!"

"That's ok. You wanted to talk?"

"Yes, umm, but it's a little personal. I hope you don't mind." Harry's hand glided through his already wayward hair, indicating his nervousness.

Elizabeth got up and moved towards the exit. "Walk with me Harry. We can talk on the way to the great hall."

The two of them walked in silence. Harry noted that he was shorter than Elizabeth by about three inches and silently cursed his genes. He hated being on the short side. Even Daphne was an inch taller than him.

Suddenly Elizabeth stopped walking and turned towards him. Her blue gaze seemed to pierce through to his soul. Harry noted that the corridor was deserted except for the two of them. "So what is it Harry?"

Harry once again nervously ran his hand through his hair. "You had your DADA class, didn't you? I was wondering how Moody was, considering, you know, the family history the two of you shared."

Elizabeth's eyes immediately lost focus. "Ohh, is that what this is about? I thought you were going to ask me to Hogsmeade." The energy seemed to have drained out of her voice.

"You don't have to answer, you know."

"No, it's ok. The first class was a bit intense. It brought back memories. I was a bit shaken up, you know. I couldn't help but wonder how my cousin and uncle would've felt before… I guess my uncle deserved it though. Anyway, Moody was decent, though he tends to get carried away a bit. I am guessing he has demons of his own that he battles every day. But he was ok, didn't single me out. You have nothing to worry. He won't just go around cursing children of death eaters, if you are worried about Greengrass."

Harry sighed, "Well that's a relief."

A tinkling laugh from Elizabeth answered his sigh as she began walking again. He quickly followed her. "You are cute, you know. Cuter than when you won us the Quidditch cup in your first year."

Harry once again started feeling awkward. "Some night that was, wasn't it?"

More laughter followed from Elizabeth, "To be honest, I don't remember much of it. I was way too hammered."

"That's too bad, it was the best snog of my life."

Elizabeth answered him with a sweet smile, "Ohh Harry, you have more than enough time at Hogwarts to make many more memories like that."

They walked some more in silence before Harry decided to break it again, "So you and Marcus dating?"

Elizabeth snorted, "Only in his dreams". Her reply made Harry's heart jump with joy.

They reached the doors to the Great Hall but Harry had one final question, "When you thought I was going to ask you out, what was your answer going to be?"

Elizabeth's eyes softened. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt again Harry. Maybe sometime in future when you are ready and we are not at Hogwarts?" With that she separated from him and moved to sit with her year mates. Harry's shoulders drooped at the rejection as he made his way to his friends.

"What was that Harry?" Harry looked up to the source of the voice, Daphne. Her lips seemed to be pressed together in a thin line. Liz and Daph never really got along together for some reason.

"Nothing, I was just asking her about Moody's class" Harry responded while grabbing a sandwich. He could tell no one at the table was buying his excuse. He decided to change topics to escape the awkward silence, "Hey, would you look at that? It's almost nine. Mcgonagall won't miss a chance to dock us points if we are late."

"It's cute that you think Daph is going to drop this anytime soon" Tracey piped in. Harry groaned as they made their way to Transfiguration.

Transfiguration was more of a general affair. Mcgonagall liked to pretend she was impartial but in reality she was just as biased as Snape. She had her own unique way of making things 'fair' for her cubs. She imparted points for the dumbest things to her Gryffs while completely ignoring the Slytherins.

Today, they were reviewing inanimate to inanimate transfiguration they did last year. Harry, ofcourse was the first to complete it but Mcgonagall's gaze conveniently missed their table until Granger was done and had secured 20 points for Gryffindor. Incidentally, Longbottom and Weasley had lost exactly 20 points in their potions class.

"House Points are meaningless. Snape and Mcgonagall have turned the entire system into a mockery." Daphne complained.

"Let it go Daph" Harry cajoled. He was more concerned about their next class with Moody.

"I will certainly not let it go. How could that…that old coot do that? What is the point of putting in effort if she will just pander to her little lions?" Daphne fumed.

"It's not exactly a new affair Daph. Besides, there are bigger ways the House Cup is rigged in than Mcgonagall being biased. Have you forgotten what Dumbledore does at the end of year feast every time the Gryffs are behind?" They finally reached Moody's class. The Gryffs seemed to be in high spirits, eagerly looking forward to the class. The Slytherins on the other hand were mostly dreading the next couple of hours.

Harry and Daphne took seats towards the back right behind Tracey and Blaise and took out their copies of _'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection'._ Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"Right then," he said, his artificial eye roving over the entire student body, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures — you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you are behind, very behind, on curses. So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark" He was interrupted by Weasley making an issue out of Moody leaving after a year. Seemed like Gryffs didn't want to let go of another obviously biased professor in their favour. Harry tuned out the inane conversation.

"Merlin he's ugly." Dahne whispered. Harry had to work hard to reign in a snort.

"I mean, he doesn't look any better at a distance but up close, you can see every one of his ghastly scars and missing pieces. Could Dumbledore really not find anyone better?"

"It's the curse Daphne. Anyone who is any good don't want to risk their life by taking up DADA position at Hogwarts. They'd rather work at _Glasgow School of Magic_ or _Wales Magical Institute_ than come here."

"So — straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

"What the hell? That was freaky. How did he know?" Daphne gasped besides him. Moody had somehow figured that Lavender Brown was showing off her divination chart under her desk to Parvati Patil.

"That eye, that eye can look through solid objects" Harry realized.

"Does that mean he can look through our clothes?" Daphne sounded horrified at her own thoughts.

"Possibly, though I doubt…"

"How could they allow such a… such a perversity to exist?"

"Chill out Daph, I am sure Moody isn't using his eye to perve on teenagers."

"How do we know he isn't?"

"Shush, we missed his explanation but he's about to cast a spell. Let's watch" Harry said putting an end to Daphne's mini panic attack.

Moody jabbed his wand at the spider and intoned "Imperio". He then began to make the spider dance on his tunes, making everyone laugh. "You think that's funny? Wait until that happens to you". That effectively shut everyone up.

"Now, for the next one. How about you Mr. Potter?"

Harry stared holes into Moody's skull. The bastard knew how Harry had suffered at the hand of this next curse. Daphne besides him made to answer,"The Cru..."

"I didn't ask you Ms Greengrass. Mr. Potter, you remember the curse?"

"It's the cruciatus" he spit out. Alright, Moody was officially on his shit list now. But Moody wasn't done with him yet. "This will need a bigger target. Engorgio" he fired at the second spider out of his jar. The spider expanded to the size of a tennis ball.

"Crucio" The spider began twitching uncontrollably. Harry's hand fisted in anger on top of his leg. He was going to kill Moody, one way or another. He continued to stare at the twitching spider on the table.

'Look away James. I love you, look away' the voice sounded in his ears.

Harry felt like he was losing himself to his dreams. His vision began to darken. Just when he thought he was going to start hearing his parents' screams, a hand grabbed hold of his hand. He looked at his side to see a pained look on Daphne's face. "It's ok, Harry. I am here for you."

"Thanks Daph"

Eventually Moody got tired of torturing him and moved on to demonstrating the last curse, the killing curse. Longbottom provided that answer and Moody killed the last spider right in his face. It was like Moody was some kind of sick freak, deriving pleasure by displaying their worst nightmare right in their faces.

They spent the rest of the class taking down notes on the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang — but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices — "Did you see it twitch?" "— and when he killed it — just like that!"

"Harry, you ok?"

"Ofcourse I am, why won't I be ok? Did you see Moody use those unforgivable? He seems quite good at them."

"Harry, it's ok to be upset you know. No one likes a reminder like that."

"I don't feel upset right now. I am more interested in the Unforgivables. They are like cheats, aren't they? What is the point of learning complicated spells if I can kill, torture, and control with just three spells. Wouldn't it be easier perfecting just those three?"

"For once don't try to change topics with me", came Daphne's exasperated reply.

"Look Daphne, I am fine. I don't want to talk about it and I certainly don't need pity so can you please drop it?"

"Alright, if you say so. But you know I am there if you need me right? For anything."

"I do, and if I decide to assassinate Moody in his office, you'll be the first to know" Harry answered with a smile. "Now can we discuss the Unforgivables?"

"They are illegal Harry"

"So are the more effective dark arts Daph."

"It doesn't work like that Harry, most people who are good duelers don't use unforgivable at all. They cost a lot of magic, much more than any other form of dark magic. Most adults can't fire more than 5 killing curses before fainting from exhaustion. People like the Dark Lord and Dumbledore are obvious exceptions but the popular opinion is that even they would tap out at around 20. Unless you have a sure shot, firing the Unforgivables in a duel is suicidal."

"Well shoot! Guess there's no shortcut then."

"No Harry there isn't. What prompted this anyway? Besides your obvious attempt to change topic that is."

"Thanks for being so understanding Daph. I have been having some trouble with the Dark Arts book you gave me. I can't seem to get any spell to work. Do you think you can…"

Daphne just stared at him.

"I mean, I thought, you know, I don't mean to be inconsiderate.."

"Just say it Harry, you want to know whether my father taught me Dark Arts. The answer is yes."

Harry gave her a sheepish smile. "You think you can give me some pointers?"

Daphne gave him a long look. "I guess I can. I am no expert, but I can coach you in the basic theory."

"Thanks Daph, you are the best."

"Who else is going to keep your sorry arse out of trouble?"

"Admit it Daph, you like this arse too much."

"Keep dreaming."

********************************ACDCACDCACDC*****************************

Harry made his way through the darkening hallways of Hogwarts towards the second floor east wing. Daphne had decided to make time to coach him in the dark arts over the weekend. He wanted to get started earlier, but Daphne absolutely refused to budge. As such, he had to spend the last two days pouring over the books to cram some theory into his brain. He avoided Peeves and Filch in his journey and made sure no pesky Gryffindors were following him. It wouldn't do to get caught while learning dark arts. A dark arts violation wasn't very good for your resume.

Harry pushed the oak door to enter the airy room. This was one of the older rooms of Hogwarts. Harry doubted anyone had entered this room for atleast half a decade. That was when Hogwarts had its last alchemy student. The room they had chosen was the abandoned alchemy classroom. Getting selected to learn alchemy under the great Albus Dumbledore was no small feat. As such no more than a couple of students got the honour every so often after their NEWTS.

Harry entered to find a pretty girl with black hair standing near the far wall with her back towards him. Her hair fell like a cascade all the way to the small of her back. Her ass stuck out in a shapely curve. He did not mean to be rude but he thought Daphne had the best ass in the world, not just Hogwarts. Harry had the strange urge to walk up to her and engulf her in his arms. No, that wasn't the direction he wanted his mind to wander in.

Daphne seemed to be studying one of the wall length posters explaining the first law of alchemy. Alchemy was a branch of magic that combined Transfiguration with Potions. Through alchemy, it was possible to break many of the rigid laws of Transfiguation. In a sense, alchemy resembled the peak of accomplishment for a potions master and a transfiguration master, where one combined the two fields seamlessly to perform miracles otherwise unheard of. Harry knew he had no shot at it. One had to be exceptional at both potions and transfiguration for Dumbledore to even grant an audience.

"Interested in pursuing Alchemy Daph?" Harry asked. Daphne immediately turned to face him with a dazzling smile on her lips.

"I wish! But I doubt Dumbledore would ever take me up with my mediocre Transfiguration skills. You have a real chance though, you know. If only you put in a little more effort in Potions. Unlike Transfiguration, Potions isn't even too hard."

"Everyone feels the same way about the field they like Daphne. For me, Potions bamboozles the crap out of me. I won't stand a chance at alchemy in a million years with my potions skills. Besides, I am not very interested in it either. It isn't combat oriented at all."

"You boys just like to make things go bang, don't you? There's so much more to magic than just combat you know? There's real cutting edge research going on in the field of alchemy. Solutions that are incomprehensible with the regular branches of magic might be possible with alchemy. Do you not get the euphoria of discovery and invention?"

"Hmmm, nah. I'll stick with, as you so eloquently put it, making things go bang"

"Ughhhhh" Daphne huffed, clearly miffed at him.

"Speaking of 'bang bang', should we get started?"

Harry saw Daphne immediately school her expressions. "Before we start, I must warn you Harry. Never use the dark arts unless you absolutely need to. This is a very dangerous branch of magic and there's a reason it is heavily regulated. Dark arts cost much more magic than regular ones. When one is using the dark arts, they do not realize the drain it puts on them until it is too late. The occlumency should help you in keeping your emotions at bay to keep them from taking over you so never practice the dark arts without occlumency."

"Yada yada yada. Yes Daphne I know all this. Can we get a move on now?"

"This is important Harry! Alright, tell me, what seems to be the problem?"

"The problem is that I can't get any of the spells to work. Watch.. Ossasula" Harry fired the bone breaker curse towards one of the tables only to see nothing happen.

"What were you thinking when you channeled your magic?"

"I know imagination is the most important aspect of spell casting, I am not a firstie, Daph. I need to want the table to break, so that's what I was imagining."

"Were there no instructions in the book?" Daphne asked curiously.

"Not really. It's just a big introduction about who invented the spell, how it was invented, how it was used over the years, how the spell works and some creative tweaks that can be applied to it. And yes, there are some pretty disturbing pictures with every spell. I think the author used muggles as victims for the spells and then cut their bodies open to show the effects of the spell."

"May be the book is too advanced for you Harry. Why don't I take it back and look for a book more suited for you over Christmas?"

"What? No! I'll manage; I just need a few pointers. Now are you going to help me or not?" He was starting to grow agitated at her dithering.

"Harry I really feel guilty for doing this but if this is what you want…" Daphne had a look of uncertainity on her face.

"Yes Daphne, this is exactly what I want" Harry spoke in a voice that left no doubt about his intentions.

"Alright, let's start. Dark Arts deviate from the traditional spells in a sense that they need emotions to cast. They are like the opposite of the light spells. Remember the Patronus charm? That is what one would call a light spell and it is powered by positive emotions like love. Dark Arts on the other hand need what one usually calls the negative emotions. The rest of the spells we learn in different classes are mostly neutral spells. You with me so far?"

"Uh huh. So you are saying that to get the dark arts to work, I need to channel the negative emotions like hate?"

"Yes and no. First you need to learn what the negative emotions are. There are seven primary negative emotions. Some people like to call them the _'seven deadly sins'_. The higher up the hierarchy you go, the harder is the emotion to manifest and control. You need to understand that when we talk about negative emotions here, not just anything will do. Your emotions need to be strong enough to power incredible feats of magic, yet your resolve needs to be stronger to keep those emotions on a leash. Just like last year you learned to manifest enough emotion of love to power your patronus. It is actually possible to power a patronus with other positive emotions too, like happiness. Love is just the strongest emotion and gives the best results."

"So which is the strongest negative emotion?"

"It's not the same Harry. While positive emotions are docile, negative emotions are like a raging inferno. If you start with too strong an emotion, you will get swept away by it. This is precisely why light arts are preferred over dark arts. You have to listen to caution Harry."

"Alright, I won't use the strongest emotion directly." Harry spoke placatingly.

"Good, now let's get to the emotional hierarchy. At the bottom is the emotion of Grief. It is the easiest to control. The results with it aren't great but it is the best and safest emotion to start with. You need to channel your sense of loss and sadness to use this emotion. As with all other emotions, when you think about sad events in your life, there is a possibility that you lose yourself in the spiral of thoughts and keep exacerbating your grief but it is easiest to break out of it. A few good thoughts can easily help you control this emotion."

"So I need to watch out for depression with overusing this emotion?" Harry asked.

"Crippling depression in the most extreme case, yes. Then comes the emotion of greed. It's better than grief in terms of power but not by much. Getting strong greed emotion is hard and not many people prefer it since the payoff for the effort isn't massive. Next is fear. If you are scared enough, you can use it to power your spells. It is a surprisingly powerful emotion even though most people don't use it because they think it is the emotion of cowards. However, from what I know about your personality, I doubt you'd be able to use fear."

"Yeah, fear isn't my cup of tea."

"Next on the list is pride or vanity. It is considered a mid-level emotion. You need to produce narcissistic levels of pride if you want to use this emotion to power your spells. This emotion works very well with illusion spells, better than most other emotions. I think this emotion would compliment your personality quite well. I feel that you should start with grief and work your way slowly up to pride."

"I don't know Daph, I think I want to know the rest too before deciding."

Daphne let out a small sigh. "The next three emotions are the most powerful ones Harry. Each of them is very strong in it's own right. The first of these is envy. Envy can power most of the dark spells and has the exclusive dominion on the Unforgivable spell 'Imperius'. If you want to cast the spell, harnessing this emotion is necessary. The Imperius curse robs its victim of their agency of mind. Hence, your envy against a person must be stronger than their willpower if you are to gain control over their mind. This emotion is very volatile and it changes the personality of weak-willed casters."

"The second most powerful emotion is the emotion of anger or wrath. A very explosive emotion, it is exceptionally strong when powering blasting or other physical damage curses and hexes. It is a very dangerous emotion and countless wizards and witches have lost themselves to their wrath. Users tend to forget their limitations or their sense of safety and overextend themselves. This emotion is vital if you are to cast the Unforgivable Cruciatus Curse. The curse robs its victim of their agency of body. The caster needs to feel absolute wrath to successfully cast this spell. There are no substitutes."

"The final emotion, as you might have guessed, is hatred. Countless people have tried to tame the king of emotions yet the dark Lord and Grindelwald are the only two people in the twentieth century that have been proven to have mastered it. It is actually rumored to be the dark lord's weapon of choice. It is because of his command over this emotion that his power is perceived as so deadly and boundless. As you must have heard, even after being proficient with this emotion, the dark lord is said to be not the most patient or stable. It is theorized that the reason for that is the emotion of hatred taking its toll over time. Towards the end of his reign, even Grindelwald was considered to have gone more than a little mad. The two of them have proved that there's no safe way to handle this emotion. As for the Unforgivables, you need hatred if you want to cast the Killing curse. The killing curse deprives its victims of their agency of soul so your hatred must be stronger than the soul's bond to the body."

"Hang on, you said only two people have gotten control over this emotion yet more than just two can cast the killing curse. Heck, so many wizards can cast the unforgivable and I doubt most of them have the mental fortitude to control any of the top three emotions."

"You are correct Harry. You do not need to control an emotion if you want to cast a spell once. You need it when you are using it exclusively to power all your spells. Once in a while, anyone can muster enough hatred to cast even the killing curse. But if you want to power up everything from a simple bone breaker all the way to the esoteric curses, then you need to command the emotion to come up and dissipate at will."

"Hmm, that makes sense."

"Now that the lecture is over, why don't we start? Try to think about some sad events in your life and then collect your magic to cast the bone breaker."

Harry nodded at Daphne and closed his eyes. He thought about his life at Dursleys, every abuse he faced at their hands, every time he watched them shower Dudley with praise while they shunned him. He opened his eyes and flicked his wand while murmuring 'Ossasula'. A red blot of light left his wand and raced towards a table. The table's leg broke with a loud crack, yet Harry felt nothing for a moment. Then it set in and Harry realized that he had successfully cast the spell. A wide smile broke out on his face as he turned towards Daphne.

"I did it."

Daphne smiled back at him approvingly. "Yes you did. Do you feel down? I have a chocolate here if you need it."

"Not yet, I want to practice some more." Harry whipped his wand and began casting the spell repeatedly, slowly increasing his casting speed. He got it right 5 times but with diminishing results.

"You are losing conection with your emotion Harry. You need to keep the feeling of grief at the back of your mind."

Harry started focusing again and the results were back. He kept casting until he had pulverized most of the tables in the classroom.

"We should go now Harry. It's been quite some time."

"But I want to practice more Daph!"

"Harry, you are tired. You don't realize it because the rush is strong right now. You will have a bad crash once your body catches up with your stamina."

"Alright, let me just try one more thing." Harry had once gain lost his connection to the feeling of grief. It seemed like the moment he or anyone started talking, he would lose the connection. He needed something stronger. He began thinking of his parents, how they had been tortured into insanity. How he grew up an orphan because of the death eaters. He felt a fire tingling through his veins. A rush of what he presumed was power went to his head. He raised his arm and made three quick slashes 'acidum adipsium'.

Harry was not prepared for the results. A big blob of purple liquid left his wand and rushed towards the broken wood pieces. He thought he heard Daphne gasp behind him. The purple blob fell on top of the wood pieces and ate right through them. He watched as the stone below the wood started corroding away. Yes, this was the power he desired to completely annihilate his enemies. He watched as the stone floor melted with a sizzling sound. The sound was pleasing, more so than the shrill shriek in the background. Wait a minute, he was here with Daphne so the shrieking voice must belong to…

Harry came to his senses with a start. He looked behind him to see Daphne's face fighting anger and fear at the same time.

"Harry are you even listening? The acid will eat through the stone and fall down to the surface below. Stop it now!"

Harry nodded dumbly at Daphne before raising his wand. 'Evanesco'. Nothing happened. He tried again to no result.

"It's not a potion Harry. That won't work."

"I..I don't know what to do then" Harry mumbled.

"What? You cast a spell without knowing its counter? Are you daft? What have I been warning you for so long for?"

"I FUCKED UP ALRIGHT. STOP NAGGING ME!" Harry roared. Wait a minute, where did that come from. He didn't mean to shout at Daphne, he never shouted at Daphne. She was right, he had been careless casting a spell without bothering to learn its counter. Why did he shout at her. He saw Daphne's lips pressed together in a thin line as she turned away from him and pointed her wand at the acid puddle.

'Nix Praefoco' Immediately snow crystals began falling down on top of the puddle and within a few moments, all the acid was consumed by the snow. 'Calamitatis'. The snow wavered before disappearing under Daphne's disillusionment charm. That should cover the acid and hide it until the spell ran out of power.

Harry moved towards Daphne. "Daph, I..I didn't mean to…"

"Drink this" She cut him off while shoving a potion vial in his face. Harry knew better than to argue when Daphne was mad and quickly gulped down the potion. Immediately, a cooling sensation flowed through his body as Harry took a deep breath.

"Wow, what was that?"

Daphne answered him with a slap to his face. "Oww, I said I was sorry." Harry said while rubbing his red cheek.

"No you didn't. You were about to, which is not the same. The potion is a calming draught." So that was what happened. He channeled anger instead of sadness. He had to admire Daphne though, she had come prepared. He'd bet she had a potion to counter every emotion in her cloak pocket. He lowered his hand only to receive a second slap on his other cheek.

"Oww, what was that one for?" Both his hands went up to cover his face. If Daphne had her way, he wouldn't leave the room without severe facial lacerations.

"That was for ignoring my precautions. I specifically told you to stay clear of the more dangerous emotions. Do you see what happens? There's a cost to pay for that power and you are too inexperienced for it just yet."

"I'm sorry. You are right, let's just go and call it a day." Harry said with a sigh.

"You aren't returning here without me, do you understand Harry James Potter?"

"Yes ma'am" Common wisdom stated that when Daphne was angry, the best solution was to agree to everything she said.

"Alright, set the room back up and then we can leave."

"I will need my hands for that. You aren't going to slap me again are you?" He asked with a hint of suspicion.

"Nope, I promise. Does it hurt?" Daphne asked in a sugar sweet voice.

Harry made puppy eyes at Daphne, "Yes"

He saw her lips curl into a smirk, "Do you want me to kiss it better?"

He gave her his cutest look while nodding,"Please!"

Daphne leaned forward until her hairs were tickling his ears. He leaned his cheek forward as he felt heat rush through his body.

"Why don't you ask Elizabeth Rosier to kiss it for you?" Daphne whispered before turning around.

"Not fair Daph, that was two days ago." Harry shouted as Daphne slipped out of the room. Damn, the girl had a long memory.

 **SPELL GUIDE:**

 **Ossasula- Bone breaker hex**

 **Acidum Adipsium- Acid Splatter spell. Ejects a purple blob of highly corrosive acid that cannot be neutralized easily.**

 **Nix Praefoco- Snow Smother spell. The targeted area is smothered with magical snow that is highly resistant to magic. It is a Greengrass Family Spell and is rumored to be invented around the 14** **th** **century.**

 **Calamitatis- A weaker version of the disillusionment charm.**

 **As always, please review and let me know your thoughts. Ohh and incase you didn't notice, the pairings got updated. No points for guessing who the OC is.**


	4. Chapter 4- Wrath of an Avenger

**AN:- Welcome back to another chapter. This Author's note is IMPORTANT so please do read. I was going over the plot of the story that I have in mind and I realized that I don't have much application for Harry's thought projection power that I mentioned in first and second chapter. So I will be removing it. I will edit the previous chapters later but for now, forget about that please. I am sorry but it makes Harry too OP in my opinion. Now let's get to your questions.**

 **ULKSER- Occlumency is not an active skill in this story. Unlike many other fanfictions you read, in this one occlumency is more canonish. Which means you have to be actively focusing on occlumency for it to work. There is nothing like permanent occlumency shields. Think about it, occlumency is suppressing emotions and thinking about something unimportant. You can't do that all the time. It will make you emotionless and stupid.**

 **NAUZE18- Good question. I wanted to explain this anyway so thanks for reminding me. This won't be a traditional harem story. There is going to be an actual plot and every girl has a part to play. I haven't yet decided whether the final pairing will be just Harry and one girl or more than one girl so you will have to stick around for that. But there won't be threesomes or foursomes anytime in near future.**

 **GEORGE1892- It won't, that is not the direction of this story. Besides, Daphne herself is pretty dark too. She just doesn't want Harry to go insane like Bellatrix or kill himself with dark arts like many other no names.**

 **ANIMEA55KICKER- Story will get lighter after this chapter. Pretty disturbing stuff at the end so spoiler alert. Also, Harry isn't magically weak. He is a prodigy student. He just doesn't have as much juice as Neville Longbottom but as you read in chapter 2, magical power is a poor metric to decide who would win a fight. That fight there was to emphasize this very point.**

 **DOCTOR OF SUPREME AWESOMENESS- Story will get lighter after this chapter. Nemesis and Adrestia are the name of the same goddess. Adrestia literally means 'inescapable'**

 **FREINDSEA14- Where did you read Lily Potter is dead? She is very much alive mate, inside St. Mungo's. Sorry if the scene is too heavy for you but if you think you can persist, the story will get lighter.**

 **SAMAIN96- I believe in giving my protagonist as hard a time as possible. It makes his eventual victory all the more sweet. Am I going a bit overboard? Maybe yes, but Harry will come out stronger from his trials. Things will and are already looking up for him. He doesn't have Potter grimoire but through Daphne, he has access to Greengrass grimoire. Wrongs of concentrating too much on Longbottom? What wrong? Why would Ministry and Dumbledore concentrate on Harry? And I believe I have not shown any scene about Harry getting pitied. The only person who does that is Daphne. Harry hates getting pitied. Many of the things you wrote after that, I have considered. Give the story time to develop and you might see some of your suggestions. No promises though.**

 **KNOWPEIN- Hahaha, no, it doesn't mean anything. I was using it as page break but then I forgot to remove it.**

 **LUCKENZIO- Yup**

 **ANTONYFIREBREATH- I hear you, but I would rather avoid filler. I will try to flesh out unimportant parts more in the future.**

Chapter-4

"Enough already Daphne, give it a rest. You have been harping on this weird theory of yours for two years now!" Tracey complained while taking a bite off her bacon.

"But it makes perfect sense, just think about it!" Daphne exclaimed.

"No it doesn't. It makes no sense at all. There's no way Harry is a descendent of Salazar Slytherin; he's a Potter for Merlin's sake." Blaise said.

"If you just look at all the evidence…"

Harry could hear a hint of frustration in her voice. Better to give her an outlet now than let her simmer on it and suffer for it later. "I am going to regret saying this but go on Daph, lay your mountain of evidence on us."

"Well for starters, from Salazar Slytherin's portraits, we can see that he has black hair.."

"Wow, and hey look, half the students in the great hall have black hair too. They must all be the heirs to Slytherin." Tracey snarked sarcastically.

"Let me finish Trace. He also had vibrant green eyes"

"For Morgana's sake Daphne, you have green eyes too." Blaise sighed. Daphne's insistence that he was descended from Salazar Slytherin was getting on everyone's nerves now.

"The color isn't right. Mine are more sea green, it has to be emerald green like his. His is more Slytherin green."

"Woah, woah, woah! Flirt somewhere else Daph, we are trying to eat here." Tracey teased.

"Ohh shush Tracey. Then there's the biggest piece of evidence. Parseltongue! Harry can speak Parseltongue!" Daphne waved her hand as if she was urging them to grasp on to something. Whether it was a fly or her far-flung logic, Harry couldn't say.

"Why don't you get on the table and shout it louder Daphne, I think a few Gryffindors didn't hear you." Harry said.

"Longbottom and Weasley already know it. Besides, last I checked the boy-who-lived speaks Parseltongue too. So did a lot of other people throughout history." Trust Blaise to know magical Britain's genealogy.

"That's where you are all wrong. I researched the family trees of all known Parseltongues in the last 500 years and guess what?"

"That you have way too much free time?" The three of them chorused.

"I did it over summer. The point is all of them have one thing common. In each case, the Parseltongue was manifested by children born when either a Slytherin or a Gaunt married into another family and the ability disappeared after that generation." Daphne once again had a look of eureka on her face.

"But my father wasn't either a gaunt or from the extinct family of Slytherin."

"Yes, but we don't know about your mother." Daphne looked pleased that the discussion had finally reached the point that she wanted to emphasize on.

"She's an Evans. That's as muggle as it gets. It's not an old pureblood family." Harry replied.

"But, and this is important, she could be from a line of squibs from the main Slytherin family. The main line was said to have squibbed out long ago and only the Gaunt line was left which also ended around 50 years ago."

"Daphne, you do realize that this is a very very long shot, don't you? Besides, I thought it was settled that Voldemort was the Heir to Slytherin."

"Not necessarily. Anyone who can speak Parseltongue can claim to be an heir to Salazar Slytherin. But, you Harry, are the true heir."

"Alright, let's assume you are correct. How do you explain Longbottom then? Was one of his parents from a hidden Slytherin branch too?"

"No, I looked but there's nothing there except that you and he are second cousins. His grandmother on his mother's side was your grandfather's sister."

"Ohh great, you found me some crappy relatives. Good job. And look, Longbottom's existence does some good too, it breaks your theory. Would you let it go now?" Harry hated seeing the disappointed look on Daphne's face but this farce had gone on lon enough. Just wishing him to be someone wouldn't magically make him that.

"You do realize why she's so dead set on proving you are Slytherin's descendent from your mother's side, don't you Harry? It's her way of turning you into a pureblood so that you'd be more acceptable to her father."

"Tracey! That's enough out of you." Daphne shrieked.

Harry let the two girls get to bickering. It was sexy to see them fight the first time but now after three years with them, it was boring. He knew about Daphne's motivations. If her father was to find out that she was friend's with a half-blood, she could be punished. It was mostly the reason he had turned down her invitation to the Quidditich World Cup finals. Even her friend Tracey was frowned upon by her father. Harry had in the past offered to end their friendship but Daphne would hear none of it. Harry wouldn't begrudge Daphne's actions for he understood where she came from.

His attention was instead grabbed by a majestic white snow owl flying down towards him. The owl was Hedwig, his pet, though he made sure never to call her his pet in front of her. All woman in his life, human or bird, were more than a little violent, Harry noticed. Was that a reflection on his personality?

Hedwig broke him out of his musings with a sharp bark in his ear. He noticed the piece of parchment tied to her legs. Quickly untying it, he offered her a piece of bacon from his plate. Hedwig gave him a sharp look before walking over and grabbing more than half of the bacon in his plate and flying away.

"You are whipped even by your owl mate." Blaise sniggered. He noticed that Daphne had stopped arguing with Tracey and was now staring at him. "Well go on, open it. Let's hear what it says."

"Fechow" Blaise mouthed while making the whipped action.

"Keep doing that and Mandy Brocklehurst will find out that someone walked Lisa Turpin to the library yesterday the long way."

"Blaise really? Lisa is Mandy's dormmate you disgusting pig!" Tracey hissed.

Blaise looked like he wanted to defend himself but words seemed to be failing him until he decided to talk anyway and dig his grave deeper," Imagine how hot it would be if I could convince them both to be with me together?"

"You are right, he is a pig. " Daphne said.

"Hey you wouldn't understand, you two are girls. This is a guy thing. There is nothing more glorious for a guy than a threesome."

"Really? Tell me this. How do you think Daphne would react if I were to date someone she is interested in and considers hers. Speaking of, Harry do you wanna go to Madam Puddifoot's for the Halloween Hogsmeade visit? We can grab her special spooky coffee and blood buns." Tracey asked while fluttering her eyes at him.

"I.. don't think I should answer that with a yes."

"No you shouldn't Harry. Ignore Tracey, I think she's just having her time of the month." Daphne told him sweetly. He had a feeling that he had just dodged a bullet there.

"Hey I am perfectly fine but it looks like Harry is going to be busy on Halloween with Miss Lizzy. Way to go seeker!"

"Harry isn't going out with Elizabeth Rosier. Tell her you aren't Harry."

"Yeah I am not."

"See, didn't I tell you there was nothing between the two of them." Daphne said confidently.

"She turned me down." Harry finished. Tracey immediately broke into a fit of giggles.

"See? Didn't I tell you Daphne, old sparks are flying again." Tracey finished in a sing-song voice.

"Trace dear, why don't you shut your mouth before I decide to hex your lips off. Now why don't you go ahead and open the letter Harry. I am sure it must be something important."

Harry gave Daphne a nod. He tore the letter open and began reading it. He was totally doing this because he was super interested in the letter, not at all because he was a little scared of Daphne.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _How are you? More importantly, how is your hot girlfriend? You bring a tear to this old man's eye seeing you already having hot chicks running after you. It took James six years to work up the courage to ask your mother out but I see that you take more after your devilishly handsome godfather. Just remember, don't do anything I would, and if you do, don't forget to use protection. My motto has always been, better spend an extra 20 seconds than regret for the next 20 years._

 _Now, you asked about me in your last letter so here it is. I have been moving around from place to place on the continent but now that you are back at Hogwarts, I will come there so that I can see you on the weekends. You already know how I have a very famous place to crash in at the Hogsmeade, don't you? After all, you brought your girlfriend to meet me there last term. If you come to visit me, I might be willing to turn a blind eye on you sneaking in a bottle of Firewhiskey once in a while. Word of advice, Firewhiskey is one of the easiest ways to get laid._

 _I also heard there's the Triwizard tournament being held at Hogwarts this year, should be a lot of fun. We didn't have one during our time but I heard stories from my mother about the one that was held during her time. Apparently, all the three champions and half the audience died that time. Too bad my mother wasn't one of the casualties but then again, I think the world would've been poorer if Sirius Black was never born. I am sure Dumbledore will take precautions but do stay safe._

 _Give my regards to your friends._

 _Yours,_

 _Padfoot_

"What does it say?" Daphne asked.

"Ohh it's just a reply from Padfoot. He said that he'd be relocating somewhere closer."

"Wait, isn't Padfoot the name of Si…"

"Silencio" Daphne said simply while pointing her wand at Tracey. Tracey had a horrified expression on her face as her voice died in her throat. "That's better, maybe I should find a way to make it permanent. Did he say anything else Harry? You looked a little constipated while reading it."

"No, he just reminded me of how Blaise would sound 20 years from now."

"I don't know what you mean by that but it looks like Lisa is leaving. I will see you guys in Mcgonagall's class, Gotta go."

"Ohh who am I kidding. He sounds like that right now. He will be worse when he's older. Alright, maybe we should leave too. 20 galleons say that Moody will make today's lecture extra creepy as a Halloween special."

"I am not taking you on a sure bet Potter. Go make your money swindling gullible Gryffindorks."

Tracey just threw a silent tantrum.

* * *

"As you all know, delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be joining us this weekend. Each and every one of you represents Hogwarts. As such, we expect you all to be on your best behavior. I hope you wouldn't give our guests a poor impression and will fulfill the duty of gracious hosts." Mcgonagall started another lecture after they were done for the day. This lecture had been the theory about turning fruit-bats into teacups.

"What's she talking about?" Harry whispered to Daphne.

"Did you not read the notice board? Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students are arriving on Saturday, 30th. Honestly Harry, the notice board is there for a reason." Daphne sighed.

"You know how Malfoy uses the Slytherin notice board as his personal pin board. I stopped paying it any attention a long way back."

"Stop using Malfoy as an excuse for your own lethargy."

"Whatever"

"If the two of you are quite done whispering, I would like to continue."

"Apologies, Professor." Harry and Daphne chorused in a fake voice. They were fooling no one with that apology.

"5 points from Slytherin each. Continuing where I left off, you are now entering a most important phase of your magical education!" she told them, her eyes glinting dangerously behind her square spectacles. "Your Ordinary Wizarding Levels are drawing closer —"

"We don't take O.W.L.s till fifth year!" said Dean Thomas indignantly.

"Maybe not, Thomas, but believe me, you need all the preparation you can get! Miss Granger remains the only person in this class who has managed to turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion. I might remind you that your pincushion, Thomas, still curls up in fright if anyone approaches it with a pin!" That wasn't entirely accurate. Harry's pincushion was perfect, complete with a snake embroidery in Slytherin colors but Mcgonagall had ignored that altogether. Subtle form of discrimination wasn't anything new from her.

"As such, you will all keep practicing your wand motions. By the end of next month, I will expect each and every one of you to transfigure a hedgehog into a pincushion inside 10 seconds. I also expect you all to write 10 inches about the effect on magnitude of power required while transfiguring an object into another of a different size compared to the original. Your work should clearly contrast the effects when transfiguring from a smaller object to bigger and vice versa. Dismissed"

They filed out of the class to make their way for Moody's lecture. "Why is it that walking towards Moody's class every time feels like a journey to the gallows?" Tracey asked as she and Blaise joined them.

"I doubt it'd be anything like the first class. We have had pretty normal lectures in the two months since then. He was just trying to make an intimidating first impression." Harry assured them all. He was right. It wasn't anything like the first class; this lecture was infinitely worse.

"Reading and making notes about dark arts will only take you so far. So today, I will be casting the Imperius curse on you lot to give you a feel for how it actually feels." Moody announced ominously.

"But-but- you said it was illegal Professor" Granger piped in. Good old Granger, worried about rule-breaking more than the unforgivable that was about to be cast on her.

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Granger and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way — when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely — fine by me. You're excused. Off you go." He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door. Granger went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave.

"Harry let's go" Daphne said from besides him while meaning to get up. He placed a hand over her arm, keeping her in her seat. "You can't be serious Harry! You couldn't willingly allow that man to put the Imperius curse on you!" Daphne whispered furiously.

"It is as the man said Daph, I'd rather it be him the first time than an enemy out there. I am staying." She could leave if she wanted went unsaid. Harry knew her better than to think that she'd leave without him. Sure enough, after a moment of indecision, Daphne settled down beside him. She was clearly miffed though and he'd probably pay for that later.

Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Harry watched as, one by one, his classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times round the room, singing the national anthem. Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel. Tracey did a wonderful impression of a bawling child. Blaise seemed to think he was Argus Filch, as he drew his handkerchief and began wiping the floor. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it. That was until it was Longbottom's turn. Neville seemed to almost throw it off, doing something of a half hop where he started hopping but then thought better of it and tried to abort midway only to crash into a desk painfully.

"Did you all see that? Longbottom almost fought it off. That's what I want the rest of you to do. Good job laddy." Moody praised the golden boy. If Longbottom could do it, then surely he could do it too.

"Potter, you next." Moody growled right after Daphne stopped twirling around like a ballerina. Even under the curse, Harry thought that Daphne pulled off the ballet gracefully. "Don't lose" Daphne whispered to him as the two of them passed each other.

He stood in front of Moody, waiting for the cue. "Now, I am going to cast the spell like a dark wizard. Be prepared" Moody said as he began his wand motion. Quick as a flash, Harry withdrew his wand and cast the knockback jinx 'Flipendo'. Watching Moody fall on his arse should be compensation enough for what he did in his first lecture, Harry thought. But Harry had forgotten to take into account that Moody was an ex-auror. The man's eyes widened just a bit before his wand broke out in a blur of motion that should've been impossible for a man his age. Before Harry was done gloating, Moody had deflected his jinx and fired back two of his own which hit him straight in the chest. The first disarmed him and the second bound him up in ropes, trussing him up like turkey.

"What's the meaning of this" Moody roared as the class broke into chaos. No one was expecting an impromtu duel to break out in the front of the class. Daphne was standing up with her wand pointed at Moody and a curse on the tip of her wand before Harry spoke up, "I'd have to be a fool to just stand there and let a dark wizard cast an unforgivable on me."

If someone were to drop a pin at that point, everyone in the class would hear it. Moody's fake eye almost popped out of the socket as he stared at him. Just when Harry thought he was going to get cursed for that, Moody broke into a hacking laugh. The laugh was both reassuring and scary at the same time. "Bravo! Bravo! No one, not even I thought about that. Yes, the best way to counter an unforgivable is to not let it be cast on you. You are correct M. Potter, but you don't have the skills to pull it off yet. I appreciate your presence of mind though." The tension in the room seemed to fall down considerably as everyone relaxed. Someone, he assumed it was Tracey, pulled Daphne's outstretched wand down and eased her into her seat.

Moody released his bounds and returned his wand. "Now lets see how you deal with a curse when it is cast on you. Don't repeat what you just did, I am not so forgiving twice."

'Imperio' Immediately, Harry felt a calmness descend on him. He felt exceedingly happy, like he had not a care in the world. A rasping voice spoke up from the back of his mind 'Why are you so happy? Have you forgotten your goals?'

What was the meaning of that? What had he forgotten. Harry wanted to ignore what the voice said, he had no worries I the world, he could stay like this, happy and smiling forever. 'You don't deserve to be happy. Not until you have achieved your destiny.' The voice spoke again.

What was his destiny? Harry didn't know what the voice was talking about, but he felt like he should know. He was missing something vital here. But he was in bliss.

Another voice, a soothing one came. 'You are my servant, so bend down and kiss my feet.' Was being a servant his destiny. The rasping voice spoke again 'You are an avenger, you do not bow, you do not bend.'

The other voice seemed to become agitated. It demanded again to him to bend down. But Harry didn't want to bend, bending was against everything he stood for. 'Wake up young snake' the rasping voice began again. 'Wake up and throw this pathetic magic off. If you can't even do that then maybe you don't deserve to be a Parseltongue. You don't deserve to avenge your parents.'

His parents! Harry remembered everything. With a snarl he tore the bliss that had descended over him to return to the coldness of reality. He saw Moody standing in front of him pointing at his feet. "How about I kick your ass instead?" Harry hissed back. For a second time in that class, Harry managed to shock everyone. Moody stared at him like he was something foreign and incomprehensible. "Never… never in all my life.. Why, I doubt even he could break free so utterly the first time at this age. No, it must've been cast before. Who's been casting the unforgivable on you, speak to it boy!" Moody uttered horrified in his face as he grabbed hold of his arms. Harry broke free from his hold.

"No one professor, and I believe the lesson is at an end." Harry said before stepping out of the class. He didn't stay to find out what Moody said next. His feet took him towards the dungeons but his mind was far off. He was berating himself for forgetting his parents' pain for even a moment. Curse or not, he shouldn't lose sight of his objective for even a moment. He wondered who the rasping voice had belonged to. That was the first time he heard it. It sounded like his own, but it was much heavier and older. Maybe it was his fathers? The thought brought a smile to his face. Harry tried to close his eyes and sought out the voice again but to no avail. When he opened his eyes, he found Daphne standing in front of him, her breathing heavy. The poor girl must have ran all the way to catch up with him.

"What a grand exit you made Potter, but how did you expect to get your bag?" Daphne asked. He noticed she was carrying his bag alongwith hers. Feelings of gratitude for her rushed up inside him.

"Thank you so much Daphne, I don't know what I would do without you. If there's anything I can do for you, just name it." Daphne replied to him by pushing him behind the tapestry of an armored knight that they were standing in front of.

"Woah, I know I said I would do anything for you but don't you think this is a little forward?" Harry teased.

"Shut up, we needed privacy for this. Don't you dare say what you have in mind. Now, tell me why you attacked Moody."

"It would be foolish to just let anyone curse me Daphne."

Daphne gave him a long look. Ohh, why did he even bother lying to her. She had skills far surpassing any leglimence to smell out his bullshit. "I wanted to get back at him for first lecture. I also wanted to see how I stacked up against him. The results, as you witnessed weren't spectacular."

"No kidding, you got your ass handed to you. It might've gone better if you didn't just stand there waiting for Moody to fall over."

"No need to rub it in. Now, can we leave?"

"No, there's another thing I wanted to ask of you." Daphne muttered while staring at her feet.

He was surprised to see Daphne look uncertain about something. He decided to tease her some more to get her to relax. "Alright Daphne, I will teach you how to kiss boys but this is only because you are such a good friend. See the first step is to pucker…"

"Shut up, it's not that!" Daphne shrieked out. "I..I want you to teach me how to resist the Imperious curse. Sometimes, father casts it on me when he wants something. And…and I feel like I wanted to do it afterwards. I'd rather not." Daphne muttered while staring in his eyes.

Harry was horrified to hear what Daphne was implying. He didn't mean to, but he wasn't paying attention and looking into her moss green eyes, his mind slipped forward into hers. He saw a glimpse of the girl in front of him, kneeling down on her knees and servicing an older man with her mouth. It was just for a second before he was violently thrown out of Daphne's memories.

He saw Daphne with tears in her eyes. "Don't look" she hissed. She meant to reprimand him more but Harry couldn't hear her anymore. He rushed forward and embraced her in his arms. "I am so sorry Daphne, I am so sorry. That bastard, he will die one day, I swear it to you. I won't rest until all his joys and happiness turns to ash in his mouth. I will look him in the eyes as he realizes that I have destroyed everything that he holds dear. Only then will I grant his wretched soul freedom from this world. I swear it by my life and magic." No brilliant displays of light could be seen yet both of them knew Harry's vow was as true as any. Daphne continued to sob against his chest as Harry rubbed her back soothingly.

Bellatrix Lestrange, Rudolphous Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Peter Pettigrew, Damian Greengrass. All of them would know the wrath of the avenger.

 **AN:- Incidentally, Wrath of the Avenger was the first title of this story. What do you think about it, is the current title better or worse?**

 **Many people may not like Harry getting his ass kicked by Barty Crouch Jr. The reason for that scene is to establish Harry's current power level so that his progress can be effectively measured. Barty Crouch was one of the inner circle death eaters, strong enough to beat Moody, although an old one. Expecting Harry to beat one of the strongest death eaters with 3 years of magical knowledge is unfair. I have read too many stories where Hary just straight up kicks Barty Crouch to the curb in this interaction. I wanted to make this scene more realistic. Don't worry, it doesn't mean Harry is weak and Harry will quickly get much stronger. Also, a major reason for his loss was overconfidence.**

 **This chapter effectively means end of the intro arc and beginning of the next arc. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are coming next chapter. This story might be getting too dark for a lot of you. But next chapter will mark a turnaround. I am done talking about Harry and Daphne's pasts. I think it is time to give them both a break. So the story will get decidedly lighter. It won't be all sunshine and rainbows but it will be considerably lighter for sometime now. There is one dark scene that will probably be present in next chapter or the one after that but it has nothing to do with Harry or Daphne.**

 **As always, let your reviews fly at me. Peace!**


	5. Chapter 5- Puppy Love and Slit Wrists

**AN: I choose the worst time to write an AN, when I am spent and can't remember what I wanted to communicate to the readers. Ohh well, there's always next chapter. Do read my answers to reviews at the end of the chapter as it might contain some of the doubts you have but are too shy to ask.**

 **Also, in this chapter I decided to forego writing about Dumbledore introducing the goblet of fire and the procedure. It was just unnecessary filler. No one reading this fanfiction doesn't know everything about goblet and age line and how to put your names in and about Bagman and Crouch. I want to spend my efforts on parts that actually matter. So let me know if this approach is too unsettling or if you are ok with this. It will decide how I write future chapters.**

 **Since this chapter is earlier than my usual schedule, and longer than a normal chapter, the next one might get delayed since I have a packed schedule ahead. It is going to be a doozy though since I have some pretty high voltage encounters planned for the next one.**

Chapter 5

 ***Warning! Graphic scene ahead. Reader discretion is advised. If you don't want to be grossed out, you can skip to the point of first line break. The scene isn't super important for the plot. ***

The darkening sky held an ominous sign as strong winds blew across the open countryside. Thunder crackled dangerously across the sky and the smell of rain was in the air. A gust of wind threatened to pull off the hood of a man walking towards the large mansion on the moor. The man was hunched under the weight of the massive load on his back. Whatever the man was carrying was significantly large and he seemed to be struggling under its weight. The man wasn't particularly tall. His face was as plain a face as you would ever see, one which only a mother could ever love. His eyes were watery. He seemed to be scared of his own shadow but somehow made his way towards the haunting mansion. The gates of the mansion swung open for him, as if a helpful gust of wind blew at the exact moment. The man took hurried steps inside as the wrought iron gates closed behind him, courtesy another errant gust.

The man huffed and puffed as he finally made his way into the great hall. A fire burning in the hearth warmed the otherwise cold and drab place. The man dropped the cloth covered parcel in front of the wooden armchair and made to catch his breath.

"You are late, Wormtail." An icy voice greeted the man from the armchair. The man looked up with fear dancing in his eyes towards the grotesque baby sitting in the armchair. It was no baby in reality, no human child could be so twisted and fearsome to look at. The child was covered in dry blood, it's eyes hauntingly green. If devil was real, this child could easily pass for it.

"Apologies, my lord. I came as fast as I could. You forbade me from using magic" The man squeaked out.

"Of course I did, you imbecile. The last thing we need is aurors picking up magic and coming to this village to investigate. What do you think they will do when they find you here walking around alive and whole?"

"I am very cautious my lord, I swear."

The baby wasn't pleased with the man and hissed back, "You were cautious too when Bertha Jorkins almost recognized you."

"It won't happen again my Lord, I swear it" The man whimpered.

"Your words mean little to me. Show me what you have brought me."

"Ofcourse, my lord." The hunched man moved to the package and removed the cloth. Inside was a brown haired woman with her eyes closed, breathing lightly. The woman was unremarkable, except for her belly which seemed to be sporting a prominent bulge. A viper coiled near the chair began to slither towards the prone form of the woman.

"Not now Nagini, dinnertime will be later. Are you sure she is pregnant with a mudblood? Her husband isn't a wizard?"

"Yes, my lord. She is seven months due. She spoke of seeing lights from inside her belly. That happens only for a magical child. Her husband, I can't say my lord. Does it truly matter?" The man squeaked out fearfully.

"Of course it matters. If the father is magical, he'd know how to trace her here. I have little confidence in you to best muggles, you won't stand a chance against an actual wizard." The baby hissed in a high pitched voice.

"She was knocked up by a stranger. She hasn't seen him ever since, she told me so."

"Did she now? You aren't lying to me, are you? Look at me! Yes, you speak the truth. She will do. Place her inside the blood circle and wake her up."

"M..my lord, is it necessary?" The man whimpered.

"Did you become an expert in blood magic rituals while travelling through the village?"

"N..no my lord."

"Then get to it. You can use your wand if you think you can manage."

Pettigrew moved the woman to the centre of a circle with esoteric symbols drawn in blood. He withdrew his wand and pointed it at the woman shakily as he murmured 'enervate'.

The woman's eyes fluttered open and her brown eyes fell on Pettigrew. "Peter, what..where have you brought me? I thought you were a decent man which is why I invited you to my place but..aaaahhhhh" The woman had begun to move and her eyes fell on the baby sitting on the chair.

"Ohh my lord, Jesus, save me. What in the name of all that is good and holy is that? Is it dead?" The woman asked as she tried to push herself away from the grotesque sight. Her back hit Pettigrew's legs when the monster answered with a mockery of a smile, "I assure you muggle, I am very much alive."

Another scream escaped from her lips. She began to clutch at Pettigrew's feet. "Please let me go Peter. You are a good man, a decent man. Please, I won't tell anyone whatever it is you are doing here. Just let me go. I am with a child, Peter. Please!" She begged him with tears leaking from her eyes. Idly Peter wondered if Lily had begged the Lestranges like this all those years ago when he had betrayed his best friends.

"Hold her towards me, Wormtail" the monster baby rasped.

"Please Peter!"

"I am sorry" Peter said simply before turning her towards the chair. A thick smoke began to flow out of the baby towards the woman. The woman screamed as the smoke made its way inside her mouth. She choked and screamed until all of the smoke was inside her. The baby on the chair fell down, a lifeless husk.

"What did you do to me you bastard?" the woman screeched at Pettigrew.

"I am sorry Martha. You were a delight, you truly were. In another world, I would've liked to know you better. You are one of the few women who have ever shown an interest in me. But we need your baby. The previous vessel of my lord has outlived its usefulness and my lord needs another one to maintain his human form. You should be happy; your child's body will serve my lord for the next two months."

The woman had a horrified expression on her face as she began staring at her belly. The symbols all around her started glowing crimson red. Suddenly she started screaming at the top of her lungs. Pettigrew was glad the mansion was on an empty moor, otherwise muggles were sure to have come over by now, hearing the racket. The woman's belly seemed to be bleeding and stretching out obscenely. Then the skin broke and a finger poked out. The finger moved sidewards powerfully, tearing the belly open. The woman gave out one last scream before dying. Inside the torn open belly lay a fetus. The fetus rubbed its eyes to remove the amniotic fluids before opening them to let his hauntingly green gaze fall upon the world again.

In a tower inside a castle in Scotland, a chubby boy with a scar on his forehead woke up screaming.

* * *

Harry stared out into the empty grounds. How long did they have to stand out here in the cold waiting for their elusive guests? Harry had spent the last couple of days reading both the books Daphne had provided him. He really enjoyed the subject of Blood Magic and its many applications. It would be long before Harry became an expert in Blood Magic but he had already got a hang on how to use blood, especially his own, for various simple applications. Something as simple as letting his blood drip on his wand while casting a spell could make the spell twice as strong.

The down side of course was that he had to maintain a continuous supply of blood to the wand if he wanted to maintain results. Daphne hadn't been particularly pleased when a pale, half dead Harry had staggered up to her in the common room to ask her to brew him a blood replenishing draught. Her reprimands were worth bearing as he couldn't very well go to Pomfrey. She was a trained healer and could easily spot self-inflicted wounds. Last thing he needed was Dumbledore poking his long nose in his affairs.

Arrival of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang contingent also meant that his time was up. By tomorrow the Triwizard champion would be decided and he still had no clue about how the candidate's worth will be judged. Unfortunately, he couldn't ask Daphne for help since she'd never support him on this.

He heard Dumbledore call out, "Unless I am very much mistaken, the Beauxbatons delegation approaches!"

"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.

" _There!"_ yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest. Something large, much larger than a broomstick — or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks — was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.

"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years, losing her head completely.

"Don't be stupid . . . it's a flying house!" said Dennis Creevey.

Merlin's soggy balls, the derpy Gryffindor firstie was right! Harry spotted a powder blue wheelhouse being pulled by a dozen Abraxian horses. What the hell? Did no one tell him that he had suddenly fallen into a fairytale? Who was going to step out of that thing, Cinderella?

The carriage landed just in front of the assembled students. A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps before springing back respectfully. Ok, this was getting pretty ridiculous now!

Then the doors of the carriage parted. Harry could feel the anticipation building in the air. He spotted a shiny sled come out of the doors. Wait that's not a sledge, it's a shoe. The shoe belonged to the biggest woman Harry had ever seen. It was very hard to control his snickering on seeing the olive-skinned woman step out. She was dressed in black satin and wearing a necklace of magnificent opals. Her eyes were large, black, liquid-looking and her nose was a bit beaky. Cinderella indeed, he thought, if Hagrid was to judge.

Dumbledore began to clap, and the students followed suit. He saw Dumbledore step forward to greet the woman but his interest in their over-the-top arrival had already waned. He sought Daphne out in the crowd. He saw her conversing with her younger sister Astoria. Astoria was two years younger than Daphne. The two sisters looked as different as night and day. While Daphne's midnight black hair hung loose reaching over her back, Astoria's blonde mane was tied in a single long ponytail. Their eyes were different too. Astoria's were sky blue where Daphne's were moss green. Astoria was much shorter than Daphne, though that could be because she was yet to hit her growth spurt. Her features were soft, her face much longer than Daphne's. Daphne had once told him that she took after her mother in looks while Astoria took after their father.

He stepped next to the girls and greeted the second-year Ravenclaw student, "Hey Tori, how have you been?"

Astoria whipped around to face him so fast that her hair hit her in the face. He saw her turn bright red instantly. Surely he wasn't embarrassing her, was he?

"H…Hi Harry. I'm good, all good. Never been better." He saw her run a hand through her hair to settle them down somewhat.

"Are you sure? You don't seem alright. Has anyone been giving you a hard time? You know you can let me know right? I wouldn't mind knocking together a few Eagle heads every now and then", Harry said while smiling to put her at ease.

Astoria shook her head so fast he was afraid it might just come off. "Nothing's the matter Harry, really. I…I gotta go, I'll talk to you later Daphne, bye. Bye Harry." Before he could get another word in, he saw her sprint away as if the devil was on her back.

"What did I do?" Harry asked Daphne.

"Nothing, she's just being foolish. Don't mind her." Daphne said. She looked furious about something. Probably a family matter he shouldn't butt in. "Ohh look, Durmstrang's here too."

Harry turned around at Daphne's words and saw a huge ship rise out of the Black Lake. Calling it a ship was being polite. It was nothing more than a wreckage, held together by what Harry guessed to be countless charms and transfigurations. The ship looked like it had come right out of a haunted story. Harry wouldn't be surprised if it was manned by a ghost crew.

Thankfully, the crew wasn't silvery gleaming spirits. It was big hulking fur covered students. Their uniform seemed bulky and shaggy. The ship anchored at the edge of the black lake and the students disembarked. They were led by a tall thin man wearing a silvery fine cloak and sporting a goatee. It seemed like all the finery of this group was reserved for just the headmaster.

"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and Harry noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd. "How good it is to be here, how good. . . . Viktor, come along, into the warmth . . . you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold. . . ." Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. As the boy passed, Harry caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows.

Harry couldn't believe his eyes. He blindly reached out to grab Daphne. "That's Krum, Daph! That's Krum!"

Daphne completely ignored his fanboy enthusiasm. "I know Harry, saw him at the World Cup remember. Merlin he looks uglier up close."

Harry turned to Daphne with a horrified expression on his face. "How can you say that? He's the youngest seeker to play for his country in history!"

"Doesn't make him any prettier." Daphne shrugged. Daphne did not care about Quidditch, at all. She had made multiple attempts in the past to get him to give up, what she called a terrifyingly violent brawl on broomsticks. Her apathy towards the biggest Quidditch star made sense in that respect.

"Look at that crooked nose, Harry. I reckon he's taken one too many bludgers on that nose. This is why I tell you to give up on this Quidditch nonsense. You don't want to end up like that, do you?"

"You mean like Krum? I sure do Daphne. I don't care if I have to cut off my nose if I can ever be nearly as talented as Krum!"

"You'd look ugly without your nose Harry. Anyway, let's get inside. It's too bloody cold out here." Daphne lead the two of them to the Slytherin table as the students made their way into the great hall. The Beauxbatons contingent sat down with the Ravenclaws while the Durmstrang one shared the table with them. A dark look crossed Harry's face when he saw Krum and his friends sit down with Malfoy.

"Damnit, Malfoy is going to gross Krum out so much he'd never sit with another Slytherin." Harry complained.

"Who cares." Daphne shrugged. Somewhere in between Tracey and Blaise had made their way over to them.

"Guess what?" Tracey asked excitedly. "Loverboy here got dumped by Mandy and Lisa doesn't want anything to do with him either. Why don't you tell them the story in detail Blaise?" Tracey asked sweetly.

Blaise looked sad. It seemed like Mandy and Lisa had found out about the other and things hadn't exactly panned out as Blaise had wished. "Don't be sad Blaise. You are just another casualty in mankind's eternal quest for a harem. Maybe someday, someone who isn't an Arab Sheikh or a King will succeed but until then, our efforts won't cease. "

"Are you done mocking me Harry?" Blaise groused.

Before he could answer, he heard someone clear their throat loudly. He turned to see a few Durmstrang students had occupied seats beside Daphne. One of them, a tall boy with brown eyes and wavy hair was trying to grab Daphne's attention. "Hi, I am Romanov Klauss" he said while extending his hand towards Daphne and sporting a charming smile.

Daphne turned towards him with a frown on her face and her nose scrunched up. This wasn't going to end well. Daphne did not play well with new people, especially ones trying to hit on her.

"I am not interested." Daphne said simply before turning back towards him. This time she reached forward and grabbed his hand on top of the table possessively and shifted closer towards him. He got the signal and wrapped an arm around her. The boy, Romanov whatever, seemed to get the message and turned the other way to speak to a fifth year student.

"That was colder than the weather outside." Tracey teased.

"You know you can't keep using me as your boy repelling magnet forever Daph." Harry complained.

"You don't seem to mind it terribly." Daphne fired back. It was true, he'd rather she not date than date just about any random scum. The Romanov boy seemed to belong to the scum category. He did let his arm drop from around Daphne though she made no move to let go of his hand.

When everyone was settles, Dumbledore began his speech." Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and — most particularly —guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh. "No one's making you stay!" Daphne whispered, bristling at her. Harry stared at the girl curiously. He could just sense there was something different about her.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" He sat down, and Harry saw Karkaroff lean forward at once and engage him in conversation.

The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.

"What's this?" Tracey questioned while poking at a large dish of some sort of shellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding.

"It's Bouillabaisse Trace. Honestly, sometimes it feels like you grew up under a rock." Blaise remarked. He still seemed sour with Tracey.

"Well excuse me for not being as sophisticated as the rest of you snobs to know about dishes that sound like someone had a cold while naming them." Tracey snarked back.

He didn't hear Blaise's reply, or what Daphne said afterwards, for the muffler clad girl seemed to have decided to remove her muffler. And it seemed like the world just became a lot happier. It seemed like a spotlight had been switched on to the girl, as her long cascading platinum blonde hair freed themselves from the confines of the ugly cloth. She shook her head a little, and Harry couldn't help but sigh at her.

"Beautiful" Harry murmured. In front of him, Tracey suddenly choked on her bacon as her face burned bright red. He felt Daphne's hand close around his arm before shaking him hard. "What's gotten into you Harry?"

Harry suddenly came back to reality. It seemed that the world, which had until a few moments ago slowed down, was once again working at normal speed. There was no spotlight, but Harry still found it slightly hard to tear his eyes away.

"Harry.. I..I am flattered but I don't think we'll work out" Tracey spluttered in front of him.

"What? What are you on about? Nevermind, Daph, Blaise, look at that girl on Ravenclaw table. Isn't she amazing?" Harry discreetly pointed the girl out for his friends.

"What? She's the one who has you drooling? What's so great about her?" Daphne asked from his side.

"Where? Which on….." Blaise seemed to have lost his ability to speak mid sentence. Around them, Harry noticed most of the students were suffering similar fates. A few boys on the Ravenclaw table seemed to have passed out. The girl in question seemed to be annoyed by all the attention on her.

Tracey slapped Blaise on the back of his head to bring him back to reality. Immediately Blaise turned back to face them," That…that isn't a girl, she's….an angel. Harry, quick, switch seats with me."

"Forget it. Go find Mandy."

"Boys, you are both disgusting. Stop eyeing her like she's a piece of meat." Daphne grumbled.

"She isn't a piece of meat Daph, she's a prime rib" Blaise drooled while somehow trying to watch her over his shoulder.

"No she isn't, she's a veela." Daphne said.

Now he saw Blaise turn around so fast he hadn't thought possible previously. "You think so? I mean…it's possible but it seems…. Merlin's Beard she's right. How cool is it that we have a veela on campus for the rest of the year!" Blaise seemed excited.

However, Harry had no clue what a veela was. "What's a veela?"

Daphne made to answer but Blaise interrupted her, "Harry mate, a veela is every man's ultimate fantasy. They are magical creatures made for sex. A veela is more beautiful than any normal girl, and the sex….No one can top sex with a veela. We are so lucky!"

"Yeah, and she's just dying to fuck slobbering messes like the two of you." Daphne sniped.

"Actually, I heard Veela's have to have sex almost everyday or they die. So statistically, sooner or later my chance will come!"

"You are thinking of a succubus Mr Charming and I am pretty sure statistics don't work that way. Besides, a succubus sleeps with all kinds of beasts. I am sure if we can find a succubus, you'd fit quite nicely with her usual fare." Daphne retorted back.

The rest of the dinner was spent hearing Blaise and Daphne squabble but Harry's thoughts were elsewhere. He didn't care if the girl was human or creature. He had just one thought in mind, he just had to have her.

* * *

A pair of emerald green eyes blinked open just as the clock hand struck 12. Harry listened around the dorm to check if anyone else was up. The snores of Crabbe and Goyle were the loudest, but he was able to determine that the others were asleep too. Quietly tiptoeing out of the dorm, Harry made his way out of the Slytherin residential quarters.

After dinner, Dumbledore had announced that the judge for the Tri-Wizard tournament selection would be a magical artifact called 'Goblet of Fire'. To deter students below the age of seventeen, Dumbledore said he'd place protections around the Goblet.

Soon, he found himself making his way through Hogwarts serpentine corridors. His window of opportunity was small. His participation in the Tri-Wizard Tournament hinged on his success tonight. He had to get past Dumbledore's security to get a chance at being evaluated.

The judge being an inanimate object had been an unexpected windfall. Harry wasn't very confident in his ability to cast the Imperius curse on a human. He had tried to help Daphne on it, but she had told him his curse was too weak. Even if he somehow managed to produce enough power to subdue a person's will, Harry doubted he could hide his spellwork from Dumbledore. From there it would have been a one sided trip to a dark cell in Azkaban.

Harry reached the main hall where the Goblet of Fire was situated. Initially, he thought Dumbledore hadn't installed his protections yet. He had been expecting troll guards or something equally grand. Instead, he found a blue ward line surrounding the Goblet.

'This is both good and bad', Harry thought. 'Ward means there won't be messy battles. Though this ward doesn't seem like anything within my capabilities.'

For starters, it was an unanchored ward. Wards were of two types, ones anchored to a ward stone or free ones. Anchored wards were many times stronger, durable and long-lasting than unanchored ones. There weakness was the ward stone though. Damage to wardstone could cause them to malfunction or even collapse.

Dumbledore needed this ward to last just one day, and the ambient magic of Hogwarts was powerful enough to make brute force an unviable option. He had to unravel the ward, there was no other way about it.

Harry waved his wand over the ward and the ward equations materialized in thin air. Warding was a specialization available to Newt students. It was Harry's interest in the subject that had caused him to read a number of books on it over the years. He was no accomplished warder though, and his shortcomings became obvious very soon.

"Bugger, that old coot is too smart", Harry growled. He had figured out the ward was an age line. The ward measured a person's age based on the maturity of their magical core. So age potions, occlumency, nothing of the like would work. Flying over it wouldn't work either. Half of the equation seemed like gibberish. He did though manage to figure out the negative effects of the ward scheme. It involved transfiguring white head hair and beards on the faces of those attempting to cross without permission and a strong depulso charm. Trust Dumbledore to come up with a masterpiece of a Ward scheme and then fill it up with his tomfoolery.

After a good 15 minutes, Harry came to a conclusion. He was proud that he could figure out almost the entire ward scheme without even having a single OWL yet. He was disappointed because there was no way he was going to break through this in the next 5 years at his level of ward breaking. Some of the concepts Dumbledore had used in his ward scheme were even beyond NEWT level. Harry knew this because they were mentioned in NEWT books as being too advanced. No one in this school, except perhaps the teachers, would stand a chance of getting through this.

Harry sat down despondent in front of the ward line. The line seemed to be mocking him. He was so near, yet so far. 'No way am I giving up now. I will dig my way under the ward line if I must.'

Just when Harry was weighing the option of actually attempting to blast his way through magic resistant stone to dig under the ward line, an idea flashed in his mind. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't be so foolish as to leave such a glaring weakness in Ward Scheme? Harry checked again and sure enough, the weakness was there. This was his chance!

In Ward breaking, one of the first breaking spells you learn is the omni-key spell. Every ward scheme has a key to disable it. The omni-key spell basically tried every possible combination from the smallest possible ones until it arrived at the correct combination.

Omni-key spell wasn't very useful. For one, if the ward scheme was even slightly complex, it would take impossibly long to break it. Wards with just two degree of complexity could take a couple of days to crack. Secondly, a ward scheme could simply be made omni-key proof by limiting the number of attempts a key had at the ward before the ward reaction kicked in. Why Dumbledore hadn't done that, Harry couldn't say. Perhaps the educator inside Dumbledore had wanted students to analyze his ward scheme and he didn't want to limit their opportunity to learn.

Whatever it was, Harry didn't care, for in doing so Dumbledore had granted him an unexpected opening. If Harry used the omni-key spell on this ward, he would have the key in about a year or so. That would be a failure for a normal student, but not Harry Potter for he had another tool in his arsenal.

Blood Magic!

Blood Magic could power up any spell beyond its natural power. Using Blood magic rituals, Harry could cut down the time required to as little as an hour. He just had to double the spell speed seven times.

Even in his wildest dreams, Dumbledore wouldn't have predicted a student to know blood magic. Dumbledore liked to believe the best of his students, which was the reason behind most of his failings. He had failed to see the darkness in Tom Riddle as Harry found out in second year. He had failed his parents when he hadn't caught on to Peter Pettigrew's treachery. Now, once again, Dumbledore would be made to look like a fool by a student. If Dumbledore couldn't stop a student, Harry had little confidence in him to smell out who the next Tom Riddle or Peter Pettigrew would be to come from this school.

Harry broke out of his musings to get down to work. Drawing a silver knife from inside his cloak, he slit his wrist open to let the blood flow freely. Once it would have hurt like crazy but over the last two months, Harry had cut himself often enough that he was immune to this pain. If it wasn't for Daphne regularly applying scar healing cream on his wrists, he would be sporting a crisscross of half healed scars all over his wrists.

The blood started spraying out of his wrists forcefully. That was a good sign, as he had managed to cut an artery so blood flow wouldn't stop. If the blood flow was to be interrupted, he'd have to do the entire ritual again. He wasn't sure he had enough blood to do that and blood tainted by blood replenishers wouldn't work for 12 hours.

Harry immediately got to drawing symbols with his blood around the ward line. Seven was the most powerful magical number so it was heavily used in blood magic. He drew seven symbols, 'ethwark' for strength, 'mulfur' for speed, 'kato' for multiplicity, 'quell' for resilience, 'vasu' for efficiency, 'myrr' for deliverance and 'firil' for completion. He diligently worked until he saw spots in front of his eyes. He couldn't faint now, not after he had come so close. Harry finished the last symbol and cast the omni-key spell. The strength the spell required of him made him stagger and fall down on his rump. With the last of his strength, Harry unscrewed a blood replenishing potion and drank deep before fainting.

* * *

Harry was standing in a vast empty field. Suddenly, a huge flame filled his vision. Harry thought he was about to be roasted to death before he was dunked into ice cold water. His lungs screamed for breath but Harry could do nothing but sink deeper into his watery grave. Just when he thought the blue-green water would be the last sight he'd ever see, Harry was out of the water and in front of tall hedges. He made to touch to hedges but they withered at his touch. Now he was in a graveyard of sorts. The fast pace of visions was making him dizzy. Harry thought his hands were still wet from the water so he raised them up to dry. It wasn't water that wet his hands, it was blood. His hands were soaked in it. He couldn't tell if it was his own or someone else's. Harry looked over himself and saw a deep gash in his chest. Was he dead? Before he could wonder anymore, he felt a jolt through his nerves and his eyes opened to see the enchanted sky of the great hall.

What was that? The book had mentioned that one of the side-effects of Blood Magic was prophetic visions. These usually only happened when one overused blood magic. The visions were almost always bad, showing death and destruction of the user of blood magic. Many practitioners had been driven insane in the past by repeated visions of their own death. Did the dream mean he was going to die? Harry was already beginning to forget all the specifics. What all did he see? There was fire, and water, and trees maybe? Then he was bleeding, there was blood all over him.

For the first time in his life, Harry cursed himself for not taking up Divination. If he had, he could probably interpret the visions. Now he could ask for Tracey's help but he had seen how she did her homework. She was nothing more than a fraud, making up unfortunate accidents and their visions to score marks. Her interpretation wasn't going to be very reliable.

Harry looked at his wrist watch to see that an hour had passed. He made a note to thank Daphne for enchanting his watch. She was better than him at enchanting, though not by much. He had asked her to enchant his watch so that it would wake him up even through a stun when the alarm went off. What she had managed was a bit more violent than what he had anticipated. The watch shocked him awake every time the alarm went off, but it got the job done so he wasn't complaining.

His wrist had also stopped bleeding which was a good sign. Daphne had somehow prepared a stable concoction of blood replenisher and cut healing potion. That girl was a genius when it came to potions.

Harry's attention fell on Dumbledore's ward line. It was now glowing green instead of blue. That was a good sign. His efforts hadn't been in vain. Harry pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote his name and school on it. He took a deep breath and stepped across the ward line. There was no reaction, he had succeeded in fooling Dumbledore's ward scheme. He dropped his name in the goblet and watched the fire burn his parchment to ashes. He had done his part, now it was up to the Goblet to decide if he was worthy. Harry stepped out and once again stared at the ward line. He had broken the ward but he had no idea how to remake it.

Ohh well, the effects of his blood magic would die out in another hour or so and the ward would restore itself then. He just had to hope no one came across it in the meanwhile. Glancing back at the goblet one last time, Harry made his way back to his dormitory for some much needed sleep.

* * *

Air shimmered behind a pillar to reveal a gnarled face. The man had witnessed quite a lot here. When he had reached the hall under his invisibility cloak, he saw a boy bleeding out in front of the ward line. For a moment he thought that the boy had been attacked by someone and left here to die. That was until he saw unmistakable proof of Blood magic. He couldn't believe what he had witnessed here tonight. Blood magic being practiced within the walls of Hogwarts, that too by a fourth year student.

Blood magic was one of the most unstable branches of magic. There was a reason most avoided it. The costs were terrible. Many had been driven insane by it. Blood magic was like a sword without a hilt. No one with any sense practiced it anymore. Unless you were someone like the Dark Lord himself, you knew better than to dabble in such esoteric arts.

The boy had too much potential, that much was clear. Were he to side with the light against his lord, he'd be a very powerful foe. His parents had been very skilled too. He and his companions had witnessed proof of that first hand. The two Potters together had even managed to drive away the Dark Lord himself once. In total, the two of them had fought the Dark Lord three times, getting away with their lives each time.

When he and his companions had got the mission to kill this boy all those years ago, he was convinced it was going to be a suicide mission. It almost did result in all their deaths. Had Lily Potter fought them four alongside her husband instead of hiding the boy, there was no doubt in his mind they would have all been six feet under. But luck was on their side. Lily Potter, weakened by her love for her son, had taken too much time to come to James's aid. James, as skilled as he was, was overwhelmed by their coordinated attack. Once they had James at their mercy, Lily Potter gave up without much resistance.

In the end, they had failed regardless. His idiot companions had been more focused on celebrating their unexpected victory than actually finding the boy. By the time they were done with their revelry, both the Potters were in no state to give up anything.

It was tempting to slit the boy's throat now and finish the mission after all these years. Something held him back though. A murder right now could bring all kinds of negative attention to Hogwarts. That was the last thing he needed. He had a much more important mission now, one which would require him to stay here all year. He couldn't jeopardize his current mission by blowing his cover under scrutiny. Besides, master might be interested in this boy. The boy was practicing magic as dark as dark can be. He didn't seem anything like the champion of light his parents were. He could be a useful tool on master's side. And wouldn't that be such a sweet irony, the boy whose parents were driven insane on the master's orders becoming one of his servants.

The boy seemed to jerk awake on his own. He saw the boy step across the ward line and drop his name in the goblet before leaving. The boy wished to compete. All this effort just for that? In a way, the boy's actions endeared him to Barty. The reason Barty had joined the dark side was not just for power. It was also for freedom. With the dark, there were no restrictions, no red lines. No one stopped you from doing what you wanted. All his life Barty had spent under the thumb of his father, trying to appease him by following his strict rules. Compared to his father's rigidity, the dark's embrace had been liberating. In the boy, Barty spotted that same yearn for freedom. Dumbledore had restricted him from participating, so the boy found a way to break free from the restrictions. He could respect that.

Barty stepped near the ward line to examine it. It had been disabled and the scent of Blood Magic was heavy in the air. The boy wasn't perfect; he had made a mistake after all. If Dumbledore was to examine this, he would have the boy packing for a trip to Azkaban in no time. No one deserved to go to that blasted place just for a chance at participating in a tournament. Barty wouldn't allow it, if he had any say in the matter. Waving his wand, he inundated the area with his own magic, subduing the strong scent of blood that hung in the air. That should do it. He examined the ward line. Already, the ward was repairing itself. Dumbledore's work was great; he doubted even he could break the ward, not that he needed to since he was older. Nevertheless, it had been outsmarted by a fourth year. That thought drew a chuckle from him as he began his work on confounding the goblet. Once he was satisfied with his results, he dropped his own parchment into the Goblet.

As Barty made his way back to his quarters, he couldn't wait to see the ripples tonight's activities would bring.

 **AN: Let's get to some of the questions and concerns of the readers.**

 **Aetemus- I understand your concern and as I said in last chapter, things will start to look up from this chapter itself and so they have. Not everything will get dandy instantly of course. About consistency in narration, I again understand your point and as a writer, I try my best to maintain story direction.**

 **Samain96- I do take into consideration all suggestions and I can assure you that some of the things you mentioned, *cough* battle transfiguration *cough* are planned for future. I also think transfiguration is better than curses which is why it is a higher prize. I do not, however, agree about the grimoires. What makes you think Potter grimoire is better than Greengrass grimoire? In this fic, House Potter is an average house, like Abbot or many other unnamed ones. They don't even have a seat on the Wizengamot. Harry will, however get access to Black grimoire but again, it is a higher prize for the future.**

 **Smutley Do Wrong- Wow, the length of your review frankly overwhelmed me. I actually delayed this chapter by a day just so I could answer all of your concerns. So let's start.**

 **Iron Trunk: Have you never seen an iron trunk? People use those all the time. Try googling for steel trunks or galvanized iron trunks.**

 **Overused Trope: Frankly, I feel you completely misunderstood that part. The overused trope that I think you are referring to is- boy madly in love with girl but boy can't man up to confess or doesn't want to wreck friendship so pines and stays in friendzone. What I created was- Harry doesn't love Daphne. But he's a heterosexual boy who can see that Daphne is hot. Attraction to opposite sex doesn't equal love. Harry finds Pansy somewhat attractive too. Harry thinks Elizabeth is smoking hot. All this doesn't mean he is madly in love with any. He'd rather not date Daphne to find out whether they are compatible sexually or not because if they are not, it could lead to awkwardness. That's how people find out chemistry in real world. Loving someone from afar or without putting yourself in the dating scenario with them doesn't happen very often. Regarding the rest, Harry doesn't care about his relationship with them much. He actually wants to date Elizabeth and find out how compatible they are. The pain of relation not becoming intimate isn't there so why put the friendship on ice? I hope I clarified this point.**

 **Empty Lame BS: It is BS, but what else can Harry do in that scenario? What would you do? Damian is stronger, richer, more politically connected. What can a school going student do to that person at this stage? I feel that when you are up against a rock, the only thing you can do for the girl crying in your arms is to give her a semblance of comfort by spouting bullshit while biding your time for the moment when you can actually make a difference.**

 **No murder plan: I don't think the best way to comfort a crying girl in your arms is to tell her that you are one day going to murder her molester father. Sure he is her molester, but he is her father too. Molested children are often very damaged and confused and don't just jump directly on revenge quests. Having said that, if you read the list at the end of last chapter, those are all people Harry intends to KILL. Not punish, KILL. So Harry totally plans to off old Greengrass but there's no need to discuss a murder plan. Besides, Harry isn't strong enough yet to kill Damian Greengrass yet. The short duel with Barty was there to emphasize this very fact.**

 **Why not let him be bamf: I have no idea what bamf is. I googled and if you mean what the Urban Dictionary says, then I consider my protagonist pretty bamf. However, there's a difference between being bamf and being ridiculously overpowered. You think Damian Greengrass has done nothing over the course of his life but count coins? He has been a death eater, fought in a rebellion against numerically superior ministry and almost won said rebellion and you expect a student with three years of education to do what? Kick down his door and then whoop his ass? I am sorry but just typing this makes me chuckle. I try to maintain realistic expectations from my protagonist.**

 **Weaker than Neville: If you have read chapter 2, you'd know that Harry won a duel without firing a single spell. Power is important but not the only metric to win. You need skill, efficiency, presence of mind and luck to win too. Basically, I have modelled the potentials of these two after the main protagonists from NARUTO. Neville is like Naruto, naturally gifted with enormous potential but not much skill and natural talent. He is overpowered but not so smart or skilled to use his power well. Harry is like Sasuke, limited but extremely ruthless with what he has. He is a prodigy student, highly skilled and knows how to use his advantages to win despite his shortcomings. If you have watched Naruto, you'd know that it's actually Sasuke who wins most of their confrontations, not Naruto. So there's no need to have the biggest wand as long as you know how to use what length you have ;)**

 **Vulgar pureblood princess: Did I use the words pueblood princess? Where did you get that from? I am not going to write my characters as archaic ones who don't know what dick is. I mean, it's 1980s, not 1580s. That is something a lot of other writers do and you are projecting those clichés on my story. JK Rowling never shows the magical society following the speech patterns of middle ages. They are technologically or legally somewhat behind, but not in sppech.**

 **Why are dementors feared?: Dementors are feared because there is just one way to deal with them. That doesn't make them powerful. If you know the patronus, dealing with dementors is easy. Aurors deal with dementors on a regular basis. It gets tricky only if you don't know that charm. A fully trained DE on the other hand has much more diverse skills at his disposal. Once again, it's not just about power levels, but how you use them. For Harry to deal with dementors, he needs to learn one spell. For him to deal with a war-veteran DE, he needs loads of spells, tons of experience and even then, some bits of luck. Dementors can float after you and suck your soul out if you get caught. A DE can kill you with AK, break your bones, make you expel your entrails, control your mind torture you to insanity, and I have barely even scratched the surface about what all a DE can do. I hope you understand the difference in the two.**

 **Continuity Error: Doesn't every father say to himself that he'd never let anyone hurt his daughter? Does that mean every father is Connor Mcgregor? Doesn't every mother think that she'll always protect her son no matter what? Does that mean they are all Rhonda Rousey? I hope you got the point.**

 **Analogous to offering drugs: I thought it was obvious that the conversation was a part of a longer one the two had before separating for summer. All that needs to be said was already said and Harry convinced Daphne to get these books and the grimoire for him. That is why she is carrying those. But she is still his friend and can't stop herself from cautioning him yet again.**

 **Why not light arts?: Light arts are a slow path to gaining power. Harry isn't abandoning them, but he is using the steroids called dark arts to boost his arsenal.**

 **Where is Black Library?: Let me ask you, where is black library in the canon books? That's right, in Grimmauld Place AFTER Sirius goes there. How do I get Harry to have access to Black Library before even Sirius has gone home. He goes home at the end of fourth year in canon. Once again, you are projecting what other writers have written. Next you will be asking me for magical trunk that also works as a fully furnished 3 bedroom apartment, and magical oaths to bind half the magical population to Harry on the threat of death. Let me say this now, NOT GONNA HAPPEN.**

 **I really hope that you made it this far into the story to read this because if you didn't, this has been a colossal waste of time.**

As always, drop your reviews to let me know your thoughts. ThirdDash Out!


	6. Note: Power Sheet

Sorry, this isn't a chapter. I was recently asked this question and I have noticed a lot of people seem to be confused about power level. Power is the body's potential to cast and manipulate raw magic. Higher power means more magic output. Power is not a measure of skill, experience, or strategy. So, higher power doesn't necessarily mean the stronger person would win. Here's a list of important characters and their power level. Power levels are from 1 to 100, 100 being the highest:

 **Avg First Year Student: 05**

 **Avg Second Year Student: 08**

 **Avg Third Year Student: 11**

 **Avg Fourth Year Student: 15**

 **Avg Fifth Year Student: 19**

 **Avg Sixth Year Student: 25**

 **Avg Seventh Year Student: 30**

 **Avg Adult: 35**

 **Avg Auror: 42**

 **Avg DE: 37**

 **Avg Inner Circle DE: 47** *Inner circle are the elite DE commanders of Voldemort

Current Power Levels of some Important characters:

 **Hermione Granger: 12** *Hermione is smart, not strong

 **Ronald Weasley: 17**

 **Draco Malfoy: 17**

 **Daphne Greengrass: 20**

 **Viktor Krum: 37**

 **Fleur Delacour: 30**

 **Damian Greengrass: 50**

 **Bellatrix Lestrange 57**

 **James Potter: 57**

 **Lily Potter: 41**

 **Sirius Black: 50**

 **Peter Pettigrew: 32**

 **Remus Lupin: 39**

 **Voldemort: 90** *Result of already significant magical core expanded through rituals and sacrifice

 **Dumbledore: 75** *Dumbledore is weaker than Voldemort in terms of raw power but makes up the difference with his knowledge, experience and control/efficiency

 **Neville Longbottom: 50** *BWL, his already larger magic core is further expanded as his innate magic has had to constantly battle the horcrux and keep it at bay which increased his core abnormally

 **Harry Potter: 25** *This is the level at which Neville would be if there was no horcrux. Harry is much stronger than his peers, with power levels matching sixth year students already. But can't be compared to BWL

 **Neville(eventual expected Power Level): 90**

 **Harry(eventual expected Power Level): 60** *can be more with rituals and sacrifice

Hope this clarifies a lot of doubts. I will add more as I think of them.


	7. The one where Harry pisses everyone off

**Chap 6**

 **I know this chapter is a little late, but it is more than 12k words long so it is basically 3 chapters rolled into 1. I am getting busy with work and cannot foresee devoting a lot of time to writing so I will be writing super long chapters like this one perhaps once a month from now on.**

 **This is a very important chapter as it sets the tone for future story direction. Hope you like reading it as much as I did writing it. Cheers and don't forget to review.**

 ***Flashback 1st year day after the last Quidditch match of the season Slytherin vs Ravenclaw***

"Well Harry, color me impressed. I must say you really were in a different league yesterday. To beat that Cho Chang chic, on a school broom no less, was something else. That bird is very nimble though, I wonder what kind of tricks she could pull off on a broomstick if you catch my drift," Blaise said while nudging Harry in the side.

"Drift caught Blaise, drift definitely caught. No need for you to explain." He'd rather not be heard discussing the cute Ravenclaw seeker's carnal preferences.

"Fine, let's talk about you then, you party animal. I heard what happened in the common room last night. Making out with a senior, Elizabeth Rosier no less. You dawg!"

A smile involuntarily broke out on Harry's face. "Honestly Blaise, I hardly remember much. I guess it was nice, but with how much firewhiskey I had chugged, I couldn't tell you anything even if I wanted to."

It was true, he was lucky he hadn't woken up in a pool of his own vomit. The night had been especially wild, with senior students smuggling in enough Firewhiskey and Butterbeer to make the whole castle tipsy. Then there were the herbologist enthusiasts who had grown some special psychedelic herbs and mushrooms in their dorms and were willing to share to commemorate the occasion. If there was one lesson Harry learned from the night, it was to never mix Firewhiskey and those weird mushrooms that made colors blend and the world spin.

"You're right, almost everyone got super wasted. I don't think anyone in Slytherin expected to win the Quidditch cup this year, especially after losing that first match to Gryffindor."

"Hey, that's not fair. It's not my fault Longbottom practically fell on the snitch. Honestly, how bad is that guy. He had a brand new Nimbus 2000 and he somehow managed to find a way to fall off it." That match was a sore spot, especially because of all the favoritism Dumbledore had decided to show towards the golden boy.

After both he and Neville found their way onto their respective Quidditch teams, McGonagall decided to tip the scales in her team's favor by buying the latest broom in the market for her star seeker. First years weren't allowed to have brooms so McGonagall worked around the rule by lending the broom to Longbottom. Dumbledore decided to turn a blind eye to the spirit of the rule being violated and allowed Gryffindors to have their merry way.

Snape being the miserable tightwad that he was, never even entertained the idea of doing something similar for Harry. Still, Harry felt that he was the better flyer since he was the one who managed to stay on his broom for the entire duration of the match. It was just his dumb luck that Longbottom somehow managed to almost swallow the snitch on his shortcut to the ground.

"I heard his broom was cursed."

"That's the biggest load of balderdash I've ever heard. More like golden boy was too fat for his fancy broom and is now spinning tales to avoid embarrassment."

"Well, whatever you say. Personally, I don't care either way. All those Gryffindors must be frothing at the mouth now that we stole the cup from right under their noses. Do you think kitty will be extra strict in Transfiguration today now that she lost the cup?"

"She sure will be if we don't drag our asses over to class soon enough," Harry responded.

"Potter, wait up. I need to speak with you in private," the voice of Umar Shafique made Harry stop in his tracks. He looked behind and sure enough, Shafique, a fourth-year student from Slytherin house was making his way over to him.

"Ohh Hi Shafique, we have Transfiguration in about 10 minutes so can we talk later?"

"It won't take that long Potter, a few of us got together to pitch in money so that our seeker flies the best possible broom during the next season. We just need your opinion before selecting a broom. By the way, great game yesterday!"

Harry blushed at the praise from the upperclassman. "Alright then. Why don't you go on ahead Blaise, I will see you in Transfiguration?"

Blaise seemed reluctant to leave Harry behind but relented without protest. "Don't be late mate, you don't want to give McGonagall an excuse," said Blaise before walking on ahead.

"Lead the way Shafique"

"Sure Potter, this way. We are using the charms classroom for fourth-year students." Shafique led Harry to the fourth-floor charms corridor. Harry hoped the meeting would be short since he wouldn't have long to dash down to the Transfiguration classroom on the second floor in the opposite wing.

He pushed the door open to find Marcus Flint waiting for him. The moment he stepped inside, he heard the soft murmur of 'Petrificus Totalum' and the next thing he knew, Shafique had immobilized him from behind. He fell face first on the ground. The metallic taste in his mouth meant he had broken his nose.

"Thank you Shafique, you can leave now. Remember, not a word of this to Warrington. He wouldn't appreciate me roughing up our ace seeker," Flint told Shafique.

With a nod, Shafique left and Harry heard the distinctive sound of the door closing behind him.

"Forgive Shafique, won't you Potter? He's not much magically adept. Then again, what else can you expect from those goat fucking immigrants? Here, let me make you comfortable." Flint waved his wand and muttered a couple of incantations. Harry could feel his jaw and tongue getting unspelled and him being turned so he could face Flint. The boy was crouching over his immobilized body and Harry could see the maniacal look on his face.

"What the fuck Flint, what's this about?" Harry asked angrily.

"You don't know? You didn't think there would be any repercussions after you decided to use your filthy half-blood mouth AND KISS MY GIRLFRIEND?" Flint shouted the last part right in his face. He could feel some of his spittle rain down on his face.

"What are you talking about? Lizzy isn't your girlfriend."

"She is; she just doesn't know it yet. And that's Elizabeth Rosier to you, half-blood." Flint reiterated his point by kicking Harry in the face.

"Now, I suggest you pay attention because I will be giving you this lesson just once. The only takeaway from today's lesson is that half-bloods like you should always remember their status. Reaching for something that's beyond your means results in nothing but pain."

And then, Harry Potter's world exploded in pain.

 ***Flashback ends***

* * *

"So anyone put in their names yet?" Harry asked as he joined his friends on the Slytherin table for breakfast."

"All of Durmstrang contingent. Warrington did it from Slytherin and I heard Roger Davies put in his name by waking up early. No one from Gryffindor or Hufflepuff yet." Blaise informed him

Warrington was a seventh year and probably the best Slytherin had to offer. Roger Davies was more pomp than show, so Harry wasn't much worried about him.

"I am just glad you decided to give up on that nonsense of participating Harry," Daphne spoke with a smile on her face. Harry felt just a smidge of guilt for not sharing his nocturnal activities with her.

"What kept you so long in bed Harry? Dreams about a certain Beauxbatons' student? Most of us got up pretty early because of the excitement but I wouldn't blame you. A lot of students seem to be losing sleep over our French guest." Tracey teased.

He could feel Daphne tense up next to him. He knew Daphne did not like the French girl much. This was too early for the two of them to start arguing so Harry immediately decided to cut the argument short. "No Tracey, some of us actually stay up late on Saturday night to finish our homework. But since you seem to have already decided what I was up to, I don't think you'll be needing any help with the Transfiguration essay."

Tracey's expression immediately turned horrified. "No no no, I didn't mean anything by that. Please, Harry, you have to help me. McGonagall has threatened to write home to my Mum if I get another D- in my essay."

"Tough luck Trace," Harry said, reveling in her misery. He reached for the bacon on the table but that was the wrong move. His sleeve rode up and Daphne saw the cut mark on his wrist. Quick as a viper she grabbed his wrist. "This is the homework you were doing last night Harry? Merlin damnit how many times have I said that I should be there when you…." Daphne hissed in his ear.

He could see Blaise and Tracey give him odd looks. Those two had no idea about his 'activities' and Harry liked to keep it that way. He whispered back," Not now Daphne."

The awkward moment on the table seemed to stretch on until the hall was filled with cheers. It seemed like the entire Gryffindor house had marched together to cheer their main prospect, Angelina Johnson, on her way to the Goblet.

"She is going to be Gryffindor's main entry? Ohh please, I think even I stand a better chance of getting selected." Blaise mocked.

"Unless the task is playing Quidditch. Then she will whoop your ass." Tracey mocked Blaise. Blaise and Daphne couldn't play Quidditch to save their lives, for different reasons. Daphne feared heights while Blaise thought the game was too dirty and hands-on for a gentleman like him.

"Defending a Gryff Davis? I always suspected you'd turn traitor."

"Enough you two, settle down. The Goblet doesn't make its choice based on your power or skill level. It makes its choice based on a person's innate peak potential so anyone stands a chance." Daphne informed.

"Is this why you skipped to the library after dinner last night Daph? You are such a nerd." Tracey teased

Potential? This was good. If he got selected now, it would mean he had more potential than these seventh years. Currently, Harry couldn't say if he was stronger or weaker than all the seventh years at Hogwarts. He knew he could take on sixth year Angelina or seventh year Roger, but he wasn't so sure about Warrington. There was also Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff golden boy, and the top seventh year student. If the two of them dueled right now, Harry didn't fancy his chances much.

"Alright, I am finished. Let's go to Hogsmeade now!" Tracey announced.

"Umm, you all should go. I am thinking about visiting the library." Harry said. He could use the time to study a couple of new spells.

"No" Tracey replied.

"But-"

"No" Blaise came out in support of Tracey.

"I really have to"

"Don't care, you are coming along. Besides, you are already finished with all the homework, aren't you?" Tracey said with a saucy smirk on her lips.

"Daphne, a little help please."

"Why should I help you when you repeatedly refuse to listen to me. You are on your own Potter" Daphne sniped. She wasn't in a good mood after seeing the latest scar.

"Blaise, don't you have a girl to woo?" Harry asked in a last-ditch effort.

"Nah mate, Mandy dumped me, remember?"

"Fine" Harry groused. "You win, let's go." He wasn't as bummed out as he pretended to be. Secretly he was happy that his friends cared enough to not leave him behind and enjoy the village. They could be difficult to deal with at times but Harry wouldn't trade them for the world.

* * *

Hogsmeade seemed to be more decorated than usual, in preparation for the first Hogsmeade weekend of the school year. A light flurry of snow the preceding night meant that the place was decked in virgin snow. Madam Puddifoot seemed more crowded than ever, as numerous boys went through the torture as was a tradition for dating at Hogwarts.

The Three broomsticks seemed to be bursting at the seams, much like the gown concealing the busty bartender Rosmerta's assets. Harry and Blaise went to the counter so that Harry could order four butterbeers and Blaise could start up a conversation with Rosmerta's 'jugs'. Rosmerta, of course, wasn't very pleased and somehow slipped and landed a tankard on Blaise's head. So a dripping Blaise and a Harry balancing four butterbeers made their way to a table to find Daphne arguing with Pansy about who reached the table first.

Harry handed Daphne's drink to Tracey, who seemed more interested in watching the two fight than step in. Harry wasn't willing to push his luck anymore and started looking around. Luckily, Pansy left soon after Daphne made her see reason. Or threatened her, both usually meant the same thing with Daphne being so violent.

They talked about inane things like the Goblet, Rosmerta's assets, their foreign guests, Rosmerta's love life, upcoming Charms quiz when Rosmerta took a break from the bar. Basically, it was Daphne, Tracey and him talking while Blaise mooned over their beautiful barmaid.

Harry's gaze drifted over to a table near the opposite end of the bar. Four Slytherins seemed to be enjoying Firewhiskey in the shady corner. There was Warrington, Fawley, Flint and…. Elizabeth. The drink seemed to have taken a toll on Liz as she seemed to be leaning slightly into Flint. So much for not dating the meathead. Harry felt anger blaze through his veins. He wanted nothing more than to beat Flint to a pulp right now.

He saw Flint caress a hand through Liz's hair and her respond by resting her head on his shoulder. No, he wasn't going to sit here and watch those two make googly eyes at each other. "Excuse me, I need some air." Harry excused himself and walked out of the overcrowded pub. Making a scene right now wasn't going to help.

Harry had hardly taken ten steps outside when he felt another person join him. He looked back to find it was Daphne. This was why she was his best friend; she instinctively knew when he was hurting.

"What are you doing out here in the cold Daph? Go on in, I will join you guys in a short while."

"I saw her too you know."

"So you know, like always. I'd prefer to be alone for some time if you don't mind." Not really, but he wanted Daphne to refuse to leave. He could do with someone prioritizing him right now.

"You can have your alone time. I won't talk, but I am not leaving." Daphne spoke with finality.

Harry almost smiled with joy. He could count on Daphne with absolute certainty. It would be a cold day in hell before Daphne stopped looking out for him. He didn't really want to be alone and Daphne somehow had known that. The two of them walked in silence, trudging through the thin layer of fresh snow covering the ground. It wasn't before the two of them had reached near the horseless carriages that Harry spoke up.

"She could've said she was dating Flint. I mean, why lie?"

Daphne just lightly nodded in response.

"I mean, I get it that she might've done it to spare my feelings, but finding out this way is worse."

"Maybe she just isn't meant for you?" Daphne responded.

"Well, then who is? I thought she was into me, you know? And I really liked her too. Maybe she didn't really lie? Maybe she wasn't dating Flint then but she is now?"

"Possibly. Look, Harry, it won't help to ponder over ifs and maybes. I think the best course is to forget her and move on."

But Harry ignored what she said completely. "Maybe it isn't what it looks like. She was drinking Firewhiskey, and we all know how good Liz is at holding her drink. Maybe she went just because she is friends with Fawley. Fawley is dating Warrington who is friends with Flint so he tagged along too. I bet she still hates him."

"Harry,…."

"Do you think he'll try to take advantage of her inebriation? Maybe we should go back and protect her?"

He made to move back but Daphne's hand shot up to stop him. "Harry, that's a bad idea. I have a better idea. Let's go meet Hagrid. You miss him, don't you?" Daphne proposed while dragging him towards a carriage.

"Daphne you hate Hagrid," Harry said while climbing into one.

"I don't hate Hagrid. I just think he could do with being a little more thoughtful and gentle. Hatching a dragon egg wasn't his brightest idea." Daphne climbed after him. The carriage immediately took off.

"You think he lives in a pig sty. You can't stand to be inside his house."

"You have to admit he is a bit shabby. I mean, his place could do with a woman's touch. Wolf pelts and tea mugs hanging from the roof, kettles, and pots lying around just about anywhere. And why does he live in such cramped quarters? We have magic, he could easily expand that hut to make it much comfier."

They argued some more as they made their way back to Hogwarts. The carriage dropped them near the gates from where they made their way towards Hagrid's hut.

"Wait a minute, we ditched Tracey and Blaise. What are we going to tell them?" Harry asked.

"We'll say you weren't feeling well. Besides, I think Tracey will appreciate some time alone with Blaise to make him see what he might be missing by going after Rosmerta."

"What? Is Tracey into Blaise? How did I miss that?"

"I am not sure, but she doesn't think he's too bad either. She was really into you though for a couple of years but you never gave her a second glance." Harry should've checked the calendar today after waking up. It seemed it was Great Revelations Day today.

"What? She never gave me any indications."

"Or you were too thick to recognize her interest. She is a bit shy though so can't blame you completely."

"And she's given up on me now?"

"Yes, which is why she's with Blaise. Why Harry, would you prefer Tracey's company?" Daphne asked with a strange glint in her eyes.

"What? No, that girl's crazy. I much prefer your company Daph, I swear. Please don't hurt me." Harry pleaded. He was relieved to see a smile break on her face.

"Good answer. Ohh look we are here already." They were standing in front of Hagrid's hut. Harry lifted the brass knocker and knocked a couple of times. He could hear Fang barking inside.

He could hear Hagrid's booming voice much before he unlatched the door. "Stay down Fang, I'm getting the door. Ohh it's you, Harry! And you brought Daphne too. Come on in you two. The more the merrier." He heard a sharp intake of breath behind Hagrid. Walking around him Harry came face to face with his three least favorite Gryffindors.

"What's he doing here?" Ronald complained.

"Now now, play nice kids. Harry comes often to visit me just like you three. Sit down you two, don't be shy. I've got tea on the fire. Would you fancy some rock cakes with y'er tea?" Hagrid asked. Harry held a soft spot for Hagrid in his heart. He was the only one who told him stories about his parents. He told him how he brought him from Godric Hollow to Privet Drive.

Though his affection for Hagrid wasn't strong enough to break through his rock cakes. "Just tea would be fine Hagrid."

Harry found a seat opposite Neville Longbottom who seemed more interested in staring holes in his skull. He realized that Longbottom's fingers were clutched tightly around his wand. It seemed like he was wary this time. No matter, Harry wasn't going to start a fight inside Hagrid's home anyway. He saw Daphne was reluctant to sit down, waving her wand over the chair next to him repeatedly to clean it. Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her down into her seat just as Hagrid turned around and handed them all a mug of tea.

One could hear the sound of six people sipping tea as no one seemed eager to break the ice and strike a conversation. Hagrid looked from one group to another, waiting for them to talk. When it seemed like all of them were more keen to stare the other party down, Hagrid decided to start talking.

"So Harry, how've classes been? Enjoying y'er fourth year?"

"Good, I guess. McGonagall is as biased as always though."

"Look who's talking. You snakes probably think Snape is a saint, don't you," Neville said.

"Now now, Harry, Neville, Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall deserve to be respected," Hagrid said, trying to keep the conversation civil.

"No, Snape's a slimy git alright. Doesn't change the fact that the old hag is biased," Harry replied nonchalantly.

He heard shouts of protests from the three Lions and a slight admonishment from Hagrid. However, he chose to respond only to Granger's words asking for the basis behind his name calling.

"Well, how about I have been completing every transfiguration first in class for the last three years yet she has never awarded me a single point?"

"You haven't been the first. Why just recently there was the hedgehog transfigurati-" Hermione tried to say before being interrupted by Daphne.

"If you believe that Granger, you are both naïve and blind. Try turning around in class next time rather than sucking up to the teacher."

Daphne's words were once again met with protests and insults before Hagrid bellowed," Enough! No more fighting. If you can't get along then you all should leave. I will not have my favorite students fighting in my house."

That silenced the group as all five of them resorted to sipping tea and glaring at the other group. Once again, it fell to Hagrid to start a conversation. "Hermione, say, why don't you ask Harry and Daphne here to join your club?"

Neville and Ronald seemed to blanch at Hagrid's suggestion but Hermione's face sported a bright smile. "Good idea Hagrid." She fished in her pocket and withdrew a small box with badges in it before rattling the box in their faces.

Harry went ahead and withdrew a badge from the box to look at it. "SPEW? As in, vomit?"

Hermione's face seemed to turn red instantly as a furious expression crossed her face. "Not SPEW, it's S-P-E-W. Society for Promotion of Elfish Welfare."

"So….SPEW?" Daphne said.

"Our short-term aims," said Hermione, acting as though she hadn't heard a word, "are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long term aims include changing the law about non-wand use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures because they're shockingly underrepresented."

"Wages? Working conditions? What nonsense is this?" Daphne asked wide-eyed.

Her expressions seemed to feed Hermione's rage. "Do you not realize that everyday, your sheets are pressed, your clothes are washed, and your fires are lit by slaves?"

"Of course I do. We have elves at home too, Mipsy and Tipsy. Mipsy is the cute one and Tipsy, well the name itself tells you a lot doesn't it? So what?"

Daphne's words shocked Granger to the core. "How can you? That's…that's slavery. How can you be so cruel as to subjugate another race? I demand you release them."

"There's no slavery. They like working. Have you ever met a House-Elf? They look like they have the best job in the world," Daphne said.

"Daphne, stop patronizing her. No one 'likes' to be a slave. They are a weaker race and we have utterly conquered and subjugated them, just accept it. Just because they have been raised with the concept of servitude ingrained in their psyche since birth for generations doesn't change the reality of the situation," Harry said.

He turned towards Granger. "You, Granger, are terribly naïve. You want justice, well NewsFlash, there is no justice. There are those who are strong and make their own justice, and those that are weak and hide behind rules made by the strong. You want elves to be freed, why should those who have elves give them up voluntarily? Don't say decency and humanity because we as a race have proved beyond any doubt that we have none of those."

"But, it's wrong. They deserve justice," Granger said.

"You think there's justice in this world? If there was, my godfather wouldn't be on the run and the betrayer of my parents wouldn't roam around freely just because it's too inconvenient to actually hold a proper trial. For crying out loud, look at this man. He is living in this squalid hut and has been the groundskeeper of this castle for a better part of his life just because no one ever bothered to conduct a proper investigation. If they had, anyone with half a mind could've figured out that an acromantula cannot petrify students. Do you want to know why no one bothered? That's because he is a half-breed and no one cares what happens to a half-breed."

"No one cares what a mudblood thinks either. That's how our society works. The purebloods sit at the top, some space is given to the half-bloods and whatever scraps are left are passed down to the muggleborns. You think just because you are so smart, you can change the entire society? You'll be lucky if you can even find a job with the ministry after passing out of here. Ask your pureblood friends what kind of career opportunities you can expect after passing out of Hogwarts. Let me give you a hint, you'd always be at a lower rung than this genius called Weasley here, all because of your blood. There have been countless before you, just as smart, probably even more. Yet you can see how many influential positions muggleborns have held over the past century."

"You want justice for House-Elves? You can't even get justice for yourself. Nothing you do matters or will ever matter. You will amount to nothing because you have the power to change nothing."

Hermione broke down into sobs at his words. Everyone else gave him incredulous looks. "I can see that I said too much. Sorry for spoiling your evening Hagrid, thanks for the tea," Harry said before quickly leaving the hut.

* * *

All the lights in the great hall were extinguished, save for the luminescence of the Goblet's orange flame. The flame cast long shadows across the hall as every eye was glued to it. Harry found himself praying for the Goblet to choose him as the Hogwarts champion.

Suddenly, the goblet's flame turned blue. A tongue of flame rose high and regurgitated a charred piece of paper. "The champion for Durmstrang is" Dumbledore announced. Harry could hear the entire hall draw in a collective breath. "Viktor Krum"

Cheers broke out across the hall. No matter the school or house affiliations, a majority of the students were Krum fans. He was congratulated by his fellow students and his headmaster Karkaroff slapped him on the back before he made his way out of the hall to an adjacent room.

Once again, the flame returned to its normal hue. Another 5 minutes passed before once again the flame turned blue and another piece of paper shot out. Dumbledore caught the paper with his hands before calling out. "The champion for Beauxbatons is…..Fleur Delacour."

So that's her name, Harry thought as the French girl he had admired from afar got up daintily to accept the applause. He noticed that it was mostly the males across the hall that cheered for her. Some of the girls from Beauxbatons seemed to be crying and many shot Fleur evil looks. Apart from the two girls sitting next to her, Harry didn't see a lot of school support for the Beauxbatons champion. 'Are they jealous or just sore losers?' Harry wondered. She shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair before marching out of the hall and Harry couldn't help a sigh from escaping his lips.

"Her name is 'Flower of the Court'? How cliché!" Daphne commented snootily. Harry didn't mind her name at all. He thought it suited her. In his eyes, she looked like a delicate white rose.

For a third time that night, the goblet flame turned blue and ejected a piece of parchment. Dumbledore caught the parchment. "The Hogwarts champion is.." Dumbledore began and opened the parchment. Harry could see the smile drain right off his face. Dumbledore's face turned pale as his eyes rose from the parchment to meet Harry's eyes. Harry could feel his heart thud hard against his chest, this was it.

In a grave voice, Dumbledore spoke," Harry Potter".

For a moment, the entire hall went dead silent. Harry punched the table in excitement. He had done it. Despite all the roadblocks, despite the competition, he had managed to enter the competition. And as if to reward his perseverance, the Goblet had chosen him as worthy. Not Roger Davies, not Cassius Warrington, not Cedric 'fucking' Diggory. He, Harry Potter, was the one determined to be better than all of them.

He heard Daphne gasp 'no' beside him. He didn't want to look into her accusatory eyes so he got up and made his way to the champion's chamber. He heard the hall break out into whispers behind him but he didn't care. It was the job of sheep to talk for they can do nothing better.

He stepped into the side chamber to find Krum staring into the hearth fire while Fleur seemed to be staring at the door. She immediately got up on seeing him and strode towards him. Harry clamped down on his nerves. It wouldn't do to make a bad first impression.

"What iz it? Do zhey want us back?" Fleur asked him in her magical voice.

"What? No! I…..I am the Hogwarts Champion." Harry blurted out. Fleur and Krum stared at him dumbfounded for an awkward minute before Krum's lips curled into a smile. Fleur was much worse, for she broke out into a full-throttled haughty laughter.

"You? A leetle boy iz the 'Ogwartz Champion? Do the British have nozzing better to offer?" Ok, breathtakingly beautiful or not, no one got away with insulting him.

"This is nice. The fact that you are trying to downplay me means that you are scared of me." Harry said.

"Little boy jokes. This is good. Means he is not scared." Krum said

"Leetle boy, you should leave before you get 'urt bad."

Ok, he was pissed off now. The girl in front of him didn't seem so beautiful anymore. "You will find, missy, that I am not so 'leetle' where it counts. However, do you walk around with that giant stick up your arse?" A little crude, maybe, but at this point, he didn't care much.

A furious look crossed Fleur's face. It looked like little miss perfect wasn't used to being insulted. "Uncouth Eenglish, I will make you beg at my feet."

Harry saw Krum's eyes widen imperceptibly before he walked away with a blank look on his face. Why was Krum suddenly using Occlumency? The answer came as a warm tingly feeling spread through Harry's veins. He turned back to look at Fleur and his heart skipped a beat. If she was flawless before, she had become perfection personified now. Her face looked like it was being illuminated by a thousand 'lumos', her pale skin glowing with an ethereal aura. Her lips seemed to have become fuller and redder, with Harry desiring nothing more than to kiss and nibble at them.

Harry thought he might drown in the midnight blue that was her eyes. His gaze seemed to be forcefully pulled towards the swell of her breasts and the tease of her curves. He could feel himself harden within his pants. His hands started getting sweaty, wanting to rest on any inch of skin this goddess in front of him might allow him to touch. His mind seemed to be telling him to obey her every command, just so that she might grant him the smallest favor because it would be worth it.

Another voice started in the back of his mind. "Pathetic, weak, undeserving." This was the voice he heard when Moody put him under the Imperius. The insults at the back of his mind helped clear away the fog much faster this time since this fog wasn't nearly as clingy as the last one. His mind was no longer ruled by the all-encompassing feelings of lust and want.

"Get down on your knees plebian, and beg for mercy," Fleur said, a smirk gracing her no longer glowing face.

"Why don't you get down on your knees. I promise I won't make you beg for what you clearly desire."

The confused look on Fleur's face was satisfying. More satisfying was hearing Krum laugh and the glimmer of respect he could see forming in his eyes. He had cleared some sort of test, it would seem. Fleur seemed to continue to sputter in front of him, her ability to form a coherent sentence seemed to be temporarily lost.

"What? 'ow? I focused-all of it, at such a close distance. This cannot be"

"Sorry, I don't speak stupid, but if you are not going to go down on me, then I have no use for you. Excuse me." Harry brushed past her and made his way to one of the high backed seats.

His feelings of euphoria were short-lived as the door opened yet again to admit the last person he wanted to see right now, Neville Longbottom.

"What do you want now?" Fleur asked the newcomer irritatedly.

The lost look on Longbottom's face caused a feeling of dread to settle in Harry's stomach. Not again. Could it be? Surely fate wouldn't be so cruel?

Longbottom confirmed his fears. "I was selected by the Goblet."

"What kind of sick joke iz this? First 'im and now you?"

Longbottom was spared from answering as the door behind him burst open to admit a smiling Ludo Bagman.

"Extraordinary!" he muttered, squeezing Longbottom's arm. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen . . . lady," he added, approaching the fireside and addressing the other three. "May I introduce — incredible though it may seem — the fourth Triwizard champion?"

Harry watched with a horrified expression as Fleur began to argue with Bagman.

"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said contemptuously to Bagman. "Zhay cannot compete. Zhay are both too young."

"Well …it is amazing," said Bagman, rubbing his smooth chin and smiling down at Harry. "But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as their names came out of the goblet…I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking out at this stage…It's down in the rules, you're obliged… Harry and Neville will just have to do the best they —"

The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape. Harry heard the buzzing of the hundreds of students on the other side of the wall before Professor McGonagall closed the door.

"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" Madam Maxime said imperiously.

"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," said Professor Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions — or have I not read the rules carefully enough?" He gave a short and nasty laugh.

"C'est impossible," said Madame Maxime, whose enormous hand with its many superb opals was resting upon Fleur's shoulder. "'Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most injust."

"We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, his steely smile still in place, though his eyes were colder than ever. "Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools."

"Don't hold the headmaster responsible Karkaroff. It's these brats who are at fault." Snape said, malice dancing nakedly in his eyes." Longbottom thinks that just because he is a celebrity that he can get away with anything. Potter, well this one has rule breaking in his blood."

'Thanks for the support, Professor' Harry thought.

Dumbledore ignored Snape and walked Longbottom next to him. He grabbed hold of Longbottom's shoulders and stared directly into his eyes.

"Did you put your name in the Goblet Neville? Did you ask an older student to put in your name?"

Longbottom denied and Dumbledore, satisfied with his reply moved on to him. "Did you put your name in the Goblet Harry?"

His occlumency shield went up the moment he felt the first pinprick of Dumbledore's wandless Leglimency. Without a wand, Dumbledore didn't stand a chance of breaching his barriers. Plastering on the biggest shit eating grin he could manage on his face Harry replied, "Why, not at all Professor. How could I, with you yourself taking up the mantle of protecting the goblet?

Not a single person was fooled by his blatant lie. That was the purpose, he wanted them to know that he had breached the ward of a legendary wizard like Dumbledore. It wasn't like they could do anything about it now.

Dumbledore let go of him with a sigh. "I am disappointed with you Harry. This competition is not a joking matter for you to act like an impertinent child.

"Be as disappointed as you like Professor. I assure you, the feeling is mutual. After all, it was your job to prevent something like this from happening." He was laying it on thick, but Dumbledore deserved every bit of it. A pained expression crossed Dumbledore's face on hearing his words.

"Young man, you have no right to speak to the Headmaster this way," McGonagall said.

"But he is right, is he not? Hogwarts shouldn't have had two champions, not to mention that both of them are underage. Is this not a failure on your part Dumbledore?" Karkaroff asked.

How in the name of Merlin's saggy balls had Longbottom managed to stumble his way into the tournament? He hadn't done this himself. He did not have the capability or the skills to bypass the age line. There was no way Longbottom was secretly learning Blood Magic like him, he was too much a goody two shoes for that.

"I insist on resubmitting the names from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang so that our schools can also have two champions," Karkaroff said. He seemed eager to milk the opportunity to increase the chances of his school winning. Maxime nooded her head in response while Dumbledore continued to stroke his beard.

"I really don't understand what all the fuss is about," Harry spoke loudly. Every person in the room turned to give him an incredulous look. "As the frenchie here said, both Longbottom and I are underage. We each have half the magical education of your champions and it's the same half so collaborating won't do us a whole lot of good. Not that collaboration is an option for us, just can't stand this prick. As for Hogwarts having two champions, Professor Dumbledore may I see the parchment carrying Longbottom's name?"

Dumbledore gave him another inscrutable stare but handed him the piece of parchment all the same. "Just as I suspected, Longbottom's name is not followed by a school name. It seems like he was selected as a champion for a fourth no-name school. Since he was the only entry, the Goblet selected him regardless of his… capability. The Goblet must've been confounded to think that there were four schools instead of three. There, problem solved. Hogwarts has just one champion, me."

Longbottom bristled at his insinuation about his abilities but wisely kept his mouth shut.

"An astute observation Harry, though it makes me wonder how you arrived at it so quickly," Dumbledore said.

"Almonds in the morning help keep brain sharp Professor. Maybe you should try some, considering how you are getting on in years. If you are implying that I might have something to do with it, then wouldn't I have done the same for my name instead of risking selection against older students? As I said before, Almonds in the morning, Professor"

"Detention Mr. Potter for insulting the headmaster!" McGonagall screeched at him.

"Whatever, are you all satisfied or do you still think your champions can't take on one fourth year student?" Harry asked. He was ruffling a lot of feathers here tonight but it was fun watching their faces turn purple.

"Impertinent brat!"

"Uncouth English"

"Detention Mr. Potter!"

"Enough!" Dumbledore's authoritative voice quickly quelled any dissent. One could feel magic radiating from the legendary wizard. "Mr. Potter, you will be visiting my office tomorrow after lunch to discuss your behavior and events of today. Based on your response we will decide the future course of your education here at Hogwarts. Now, if there are no more objections, I believe Mr. Crouch has some information for our champions." Threatening rustication was a low blow from Dumbledore, but he had a contingency plan for that.

Mr. Crouch straightened at being addressed. He cleared his throat and spoke, "Yes, the first task will be a test of daring. As such, you will not get any other details. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard… very important…The task is scheduled for November 24th in front of other students and judges."

"The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests." Mr. Crouch turned to look at Dumbledore. "I think that's all, is it, Albus?"

"I think so," said Dumbledore, who was looking at Mr. Crouch with mild concern. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay at Hogwarts tonight, Barty?"

"No, Dumbledore, I must get back to the Ministry," said Mr. Crouch. "It is a very busy, very difficult time at the moment…. I've left young Weatherby in charge…. Very enthusiastic… a little overenthusiastic, if truth be told…"

"You'll come and have a drink before you go, at least?" said Dumbledore.

"Come on, Barty, I'm staying!" said Bagman brightly. "It's all happening at Hogwarts now, you know, much more exciting here than at the office!"

"I think not, Ludo," said Crouch with a touch of his old impatience.

"Professor Karkaroff — Madame Maxime — a nightcap?" said Dumbledore. But Madame Maxime had already put her arm around Fleur's shoulders and was leading her swiftly out of the room. Harry could hear them both talking very fast in French as they went off to the Great Hall. Karkaroff beckoned to Krum, and they, too, exited, though in silence.

"Harry, Neville, I suggest you go to bed," said Dumbledore, smiling genially towards them. "I am sure Gryffindor and Slytherin will be looking to celebrate with their champions."

The professors and the officials left for a discussion in Dumbledore's office. He saw Neville quietly slip out of the room and quickly followed him.

* * *

Harry quickly caught up with Longbottom in the corridor outside. "Hey, Longbottom, wait up." He saw Longbottom freeze in place as his hand slipped into his pocket for his wand.

"What do you want, Potter?" Longbottom spat out.

"You can never stop yourself from getting in my way, can you? Since first year you have been underfoot. You dragged me down into that godforsaken chamber in year two. You couldn't keep yourself from following me and Daphne into the Shrieking Shack in year three-"

"We were hoping to get our map back"

"Not your map, MY map. Made by Messers Moony, Prongs, Padfoot and that fucking traitorious rat. But that's in the past. Even now, you can't stay away. I bust my ass for months, stay up late at night and spend every free moment studying just for a chance to participate and just when I am about to taste the fruit of my efforts, you come swaggering in here swaying that entitled ass of yours and shit all over my success."

"I DID NOT…ENTER" Neville ground out.

"I don't care. What I care about is that yet again, you are here, an obstacle in my path, overshadowing my success and I hate you for it. I don't care how you wound up finding your way into this tournament, it sure as hell wasn't because of your efforts. But now you are my competitor, so listen up. I will crush you. I will destroy you in this competition and prove once and for all that I am better than you."

"You think I want this? You think I wanted Voldemort to kill my parents and grow up an orphan?"

"Quit with the pity parade, will you? You aren't the only one who lost someone to that monster. Lots of people lost their dear ones to that monster but you don't see us whining for attention, do you? And I don't see you hating the positives too much. You have lived your life like a celebrity, enjoying the fruits of your parents' sacrifice. Book deals, interviews, you have chocolate frog cards after you for Merlin's sake. Don't think I have forgotten how you and Weasley came into my compartment on Hogwarts express in the first year, acting like you owned the entire train."

"We were young and naïve and…"

"As I have said before, I don't care. The point I am trying to make is watch your back in the competition because I am not holding back." Harry spoke into his face before turning around to walk back to the Slytherin dorms.

Soft as a breeze Neville whispered, "You know, you should take your own advice."

Harry's hand flew to his pocket as he swiveled around. Damn it, too slow. He was not going to make it. Neville already had his wand pointed towards him with a curse on his lips.

"Loci Papaver"

A grey bolt of light came out of nowhere and struck Neville's outstretched arm making it go limp. His wand slipped out of his wand and clattered onto the floor. Out of the shadows of a dark alcove came Daphne. Harry was glad to see her, with her long black hair swaying lightly in a mysterious breeze, her sea green eye alight with fury and cold rage etched on her pretty face.

"Attacking me in the back Neville. I never pegged you for a Slytherin," Harry said.

"Screw you Potter" He quickly grabbed his wand from the ground and pointed it at his limp right arm. "Enervate" he whispered but nothing happened. "Enervate", "Finite", "Enervate, fuck. What kind of dark magic did you use Greengrass?"

"Your typical counters won't work Longbottom, you better go to Madam Pomfrey later. Now take a walk, this conversation is over." Daphne said but her eyes were fixed squarely on him. He did not dare move a muscle as he heard Longbottom leave with a curse on his lips. That curse from Daphne was going to ruin his night, wasn't it?

"Ohh hey Daph, interesting night isn't…" His words died on his lips as Daphne pointed her wand straight at him.

"You entered, didn't you? After everything I said, you ignored all the risk and entered the tournament. No, don't even try to deny it, Harry. Is this what you were up to last night?"

"Yes," Harry said simply.

Daphne let out a frustrated cry. "What am I to do with you, Harry? You just jump headlong into trouble. Everytime it is the same, isn't it? I heard you speaking with Longbottom. You are much worse than him. You just had to help Hagrid raise a dragon first year. You just had to go and see the chamber of secrets for yourself in the second year. You just had to follow the map and confront Sirius Black. You just had to enter a deadly tournament where competitors die almost everytime. You just had to, didn't you? When will it stop Harry?"

"When I have my revenge. I need to do this to get strong Daphne. Learning is all good and nice but as long as I don't have the pressure of impending death on my head, I can't reach my true potential. The Goblet showed it tonight. What you see as a death warrant for me, I see it as an acknowledgment of my abilities. The Goblet, a powerful magical artifact itself proclaimed my potential better than all the seventh years at Hogwarts. This competition will be like a crucible, Daphne, and I will make it out of it much stronger than before."

"Is that guaranteed? That you will make it out alive? What if you die doing something as pointless as winning some points from judges? What of your revenge then?"

"Then I will have proved myself as not worthy of avenging anyone. If I am going to falter at a competition for seventh-year students, then I have no chance against seasoned killers and fighters. My goals are much bigger than this Daph, I cannot falter at the first step. No, fear of failure is out of question. The only question is, are you with me?"

He saw tears prickling in her beautiful eyes. He was a cad, wasn't he? Bringing tears to such beautiful eyes. Daphne flung herself into his arms and hugged him like her life depended on it. "Of course I am with you, idiot. You won't know which way to point your wand without me." Daphne sniffled in his ear.

"Thank you, Daphne. Thank you for staying by my side," Harry whispered back as he embraced her harder.

"Always"

* * *

 **Daphne's POV**

Daphne stared anxiously as the doorway to the Slytherin dorms opened and in stepped Harry. The entire house, from wide-eyed firsties to seasoned seventh years were waiting for him in the common room. Every pair of eyes in the room felt hostile. It seemed like everyone wanted answers from Harry.

After she had finished making a fool of herself by crying in Harry's arms, the two of them had gotten down to planning. Harry had pulled out the Marauder's Map from inside his pocket. They had seen the entire Slytherin house was waiting in the common room, or at least everyone other than 'weird Wilson'. Initially, they had thought that Wilson was sleeping in his fifth-year dorms, that is until she noticed that his dot seemed to be vibrating in place. That was information they both could've done without. Apparently, not all information from the Marauder's Map was useful.

Daphne had offered to enter the common room together and start blasting everyone away. There was some charm to the idea of entering the room with their backs to each other, wands blazing and kicking as much ass as they possibly could. Harry, ever the realist, had pointed out that they wouldn't last 5 minutes against nearly 70 wands. Instead, he had sent her ahead with a task. Much of the outcome of tonight would depend on that.

Harry entered the room with a calm look on his face. "Wow, everyone's waiting to congratulate me? I am touched." Damnit Harry, antagonizing a room full of angry witches and izards wasn't the way to go.

"Shut up you Half-Blood. You will answer for your crime tonight," Malfoy shouted with glee.

"How can I answer if I shut up Malfoy. Make up your mind will you." Harry's blase attitude confused more than a few students.

"Daph, I can leave quietly and bring Professor Snape over here. I don't like how this is turning out," Tracey whispered in her ear.

"No, Harry has everything under control," Daphne replied, her voice carrying the confidence that she herself didn't feel.

"Enough, Potter, you will answer for tonight's events, specifically about your selection as the Hogwarts champion," Fawley, the seventh year prefect spoke up. Daphne could detect the anger in her voice. Harry had, after all, taken her boyfriend's chance at glory from him.

" Yes Potter, tell us what foul magic you used to trick the goblet into selecting someone as unworthy as you," Malfoy shouted once again. Daphne's fingers tightened around her wand as she wanted nothing more than to curse the emboldened blonde monkey.

" Sure Malfoy, I will tell you all about how I entered my name into the goblet. After that, maybe we can take turns at braiding each other's hair?"

"what? Have you gone mad Potter? What lunacy is this? "

"Well, you seem to be the one who is mistaking us for bloody Hufflepuffs Malfoy. What do you want? For all of us to sit by the fire holding hands and make oaths to never betray each other? Since you seem to be very interested in sharing deep dark secrets how about we trade secrets? Is that something all of you are interested in? I didn't know House Slytherin had changed its characteristics from cunningness to 'sharing and caring' but I am willing to get on board."

Malfoy seemed to sputter, with words failing to form on his lips. An annoyed expression crossed Fawley's face as she fired a stinging hex at Malfoy." Shut up Malfoy and stop embarrassing us. Who gave you leave to speak? Stay within your limits idiot. Potter, no one is asking you for how you managed to get into the competition but we'd like some explanation for tonight's events." Malfoy's outburst seemed to have put the seventh year prefect in a somewhat less confrontational mood.

"Sure Fawley. I used magic, got my name into the goblet and the goblet decided I was worth more than any other name from Hogwarts. Longbottom's selection is a mystery though. He was selected as a champion for a fourth no-name school for which he was the only applicant. Someone seems to have confounded the goblet into thinking there were four schools participating instead of three. As much as I would like to claim credit for this, it wasn't my doing. It would be quite stupid on my part to share my glory with him not to mention if I could do something like that then I would've chosen that route for me instead of relying on the goblet's selection."

Harry's explanation seemed to send ripples across the gathered students. Daphne could see students discussing the new information amongst themselves. She saw Malfoy and his ilk seething in a corner after being chastised by Fawley.

"That's all well and good Potter but Slytherin house had decided that Cassius was the worthiest candidate and he had the support of all of us. By entering your name, you went against House Slytherin's will. We can't let you get away with it," said Fawley.

Jealous much, bitch? Fawley seemed set on hurting Harry. She just couldn't get past the fact that the goblet had preferred Harry over Cassius Warrington. Well, Daphne wasn't going to stand by and watch. She'd see how things played out but if it came down to a fight, she wasn't going to hold back. Her father may be a bastard but he had taught her more than a few useful spells. According to him, a Greengrass needed to always be ready to impose their will on the world.

"Fine, let's settle this then. If Cassius feels I have cheated him out of his rightful position as champion, then I am ready to duel him to prove my worth as the champion."

All eyes in the hall turned to Warrington. This was the moment. Warrington seemed to regard Harry with a hard look in his eye. The two seemed to stare at each other for an eternity before Warrington spoke up, "The goblet has spoken. There's no point in my dueling an underclassman, one who is behind me by three years. A duel will neither change nor prove anything. You better not bring shame to House Slytherin, Potter."

Warrington's declaration seemed to act like someone had released a cat inside a room full of canaries. Everyone seemed to shout at the same time. Some were urging Warrington to beat up the half-blood and show him his place, others were calling him a coward. Still, others were arguing on Warrington's behalf, asking everyone to respect his decision. One thing was clear, no one had expected Warrington to back out like this.

Only one person in the crowd knew the reason behind this unexpected development. This was the reason Harry had sent Daphne on ahead, to strike a deal with Warrington quietly. Warrington had listened to her proposition without telling her his decision. Looked like he had decided in favor of the deal.

Fawley looked like she had swallowed a lemon. Served the bitch right.

"If you are going to be a coward about this Cassius then I guess it falls to me to show the half-blood his rightful place. If I had known you'd turn out to be a wimp like this then I would've entered my name in the goblet too." The shout came from Marcus Flint, a vehemently repulsive and underhanded seventh-year student. Daphne knew about his past interactions with Harry and how Harry had to spend almost a week in the infirmary. The thought of him laying a finger on Harry filled her with rage.

She almost cursed him before being stopped by Tracey. "You can't interfere Daphy. If you do, his friends will interfere too. Harry's best chance is in taking him on one-on-one. Be glad its Flint and not Warrington," Tracey whispered.

"Don't flatter yourself, Marcus. We all know you entered your name too, no need to act high and mighty now. The goblet chose Potter over you too so if you think the goblet doesn't know what it's doing, be my guest and challenge Potter all you want. I have had enough of this nonsense for the night. I am leaving." Warrington turned around and left the common room. Daphne could sense the mood in the common room changing. The fact that Warrington had accepted Harry as the legitimate champion meant a majority of students were beginning to accept the same. Warrington was, after all, the defacto leader of House Slytherin.

By quietly bribing Warrington over to his side, Harry had proved his acumen as a Slytherin. There was no way he could fight off everyone even with her help. A majority of Slytherins followed Warrington's lead in most matters. They would follow Warrington in this matter too and not go against Harry. It would've been the perfect coup had Flint not decided to challenge Harry.

"Ms. Fawley, would you like to adjudicate the duel?" Harry asked. Fawley's face showed that she wanted nothing more than to follow Warrington and demand some answers of her own but as a prefect, she had certain informal duties in Slytherin house, one of which was to oversee duels.

She led the two of them to the dueling platform. "Alright then, I want a clean duel from both of you. So no spells that can cause permanent damage. There will be no seconds. Potter, if during the course of the duel you wish to give up, throw down your wand and I will intervene before you get hurt too much."

Fawley thought there was no way for Harry to win! Well, the duel was surely going to be an enlightening experience for her.

"Get ready half-blood because soon you will be moaning in pain in your rightful place, at my feet!" Flint said.

"Flint, do yourself a favor and shut the fuck up. If only you could duel as well as you talk, I might have had a real reason to worry," Harry said. The two duelists met in the middle of the platform, with Flint towering over Harry's slight build.

"Enough banter, turn around and take a step with my count. You can start at one. Three, Two, One."

Harry brought his wand down sharply, sending a volley of reductor hexes flying at Flint.

"Protego," Flint gave a lazy twist to his wand. Immediately, a silver shield manifested in front of him but all of Harry's spells missed their mark completely. Two fell short of Flint while other two struck the ground behind him, blasting lose some stone from the platform.

"He missed," Tracey whispered.

"Did he?" Daphne smirked.

"Pathetic, now let me show you how real wizards duel Potter." Flint followed his boast by moving his wand in a circle. Three indigo beams of light shot out of his wand, his hand recoiling sharply with each fire. That had to be the 'Bombarda' hex, a much-advanced form of the Reductor hex. Daphne's assumption was proved right instantly as the hex caused much deeper gouges in the dueling platform. Harry hadn't bothered to shield himself, instead choosing to use his superior agility to dodge.

"Incarcerous." Harry fired, sending conjured ropes flying at Flint. Flint casually pushed them aside with a lazy wave of his wand, making the ropes fall limp. He returned fire with a few more "Bombarda" and "Mallus" hexes that Harry dodged easily.

"Is that all you can do Potter? Dance around like a monkey? Is a monkey going to represent Slytherin in such a prestigious competition? You sicken me half-blood."

Tracey seemed to be fidgeting nervously but Daphne spotted the hint of a smile on Harry's face. Harry's eyes were locked with Flint's as if he was staring into his soul. Leglimency was a truly frightening skill, especially when it was used in such a way in a duel. With how enraged Flint was, he might as well be shouting where and when he would be sending the next spell. This duel was as good as over.

"You want a taste of what a Slytherin champion can do Flint? Then let me oblige you." With that, Harry's wand blurred into motion much faster than anything he had shown so far.

"Falx, Canis Multa, Facti Anguis."

Flint shielded himself against the dark laceration curse, but the four dogs that Harry transfigured from the stone that had so far been knocked loose due to the battle proved more difficult to deal with. The dogs were fast and agile, dodging Flint's 'incendio' charm. One of the Terriers managed to sink its teeth into Flint's left leg before he managed to burn it to a crisp. He fired a few more 'incendio' bursts to get rid of the remaining dogs.

The high-cost spells from the earlier battle, the multiple fire conjuration charms, as well as the injury to his leg all contributed towards making Flint's breath heavy. Every move Harry had made so far had been according to a plan. He had used his opponent's power to create rubble for his transfiguration. He had just managed to look back at Harry when Harry muttered, "Fall."

No bolt of light left Harry's wand but Flint fell down all the same. The ropes that Harry had fired earlier had changed into a pair of vipers, courtesy the 'Facti anguis' transfiguration spell. The snakes had managed to creep towards Flint unnoticed, making use of the distraction that the laceration curse and the transfigurations provided. They tied around Flint's injured leg making him trip. The jaws of Harry's trap had snapped shut, and the fly had no way to escape.

"Petrificus Totalus" Harry fired the Petrification spell, catching Flint mid-fall. With his domination over the Slytherin seventh year complete, he walked over to the fallen boy and bent down to speak with him.

"You see Flint, a real Slytherin doesn't go rampaging around like a bull. A Slytherin is like a snake. We wait quietly and patiently in the grass, waiting for an opportune moment to strike. I have been waiting since the first year, quietly increasing my skill and strength, just so I could humiliate and destroy you completely."

"That's enough Potter, you won. Now release him," Fawley said. She had a scowl marring her face. The duel had gone nothing like the prefect had hoped.

"Is that so, Fawley? But he still has his wand in his hand," Harry said. His voice was innocent, but Daphne knew Harry better than most. This was just the calm before the storm.

"Then disarm him already," Fawley spoke irritatedly.

"As you say, Prefect Fawley." Harry made a jagged motion with his wand and incanted, "Ossasula." The sound of bone breaking rang through the common room. Flint screamed.

Harry refused to let up, continuing to rain down bone-breakers on Flint's fallen form. Flint couldn't move a muscle, screaming was the only outlet Harry provided him with to display his pain.

Harry had a maniacal smile on his face as he continued to torture Flint. "Damn his arms are tough, they won't come off easily. I guess I'll try legs then. Ossasula." Harry continued to bombard the fallen form of Flint with bone breaker after bone breaker, shattering every major bone in his arms and legs.

Entire Slytherin house watched with muted horror as Flint screamed himself hoarse before passing out from the pain. His arms and legs were twisted at angles that could make a person of weaker constitution lose their dinner. Many actually did.

"He's gone mad!" Tracey whispered fearfully.

She did not agree; there was nothing mad about wanting revenge. In Daphne's opinion, the treatment may have been a touch overboard, but nothing that Flint didn't deserve for brutally attacking Harry in the first year. Besides, the bloodthirsty look on Harry's face was kind of sexy.

"Flint? You still with us bud? I guess that's that. Now, anyone else who believes I am not good enough to be a champion? Step right up folks, no need to be shy. Malfoy, would you like to take a shot at me? Prove your pure-blood superiority maybe? No? What a shame, but then again, I always thought you were a sissy so no surprise there."

"Now, if you all will excuse me, I have some unfinished business. Malfoy, make yourself useful. Clean up that pile of human waste and dump him in the infirmary." Harry's face carried an arrogant smile, but there was no missing the steel in his voice.

Malfoy looked like he might protest the command but one look at Flint's broken body killed whatever sliver of protest existed within him. Harry descended from the platform and like an unspoken command, the crowd parted to give him way. There was no need to say it. A fourth-year boy had climbed that platform to fight a horribly mismatched duel with a seventh-year student. The person climbing down was the newest unofficial leader of Slytherin.

Harry smiled at her and dipped his head in thanks before making his way to the other side of the room. Daphne's heart chilled to see that Harry was making his way to Elizabeth. A few words were exchanged between the two where Elizabeth blushed and smiled seductively at him before Harry sat down on the sofa and pulled the blonde into his lap. Her work here was done for tonight so Daphne made her way back to her dormitory, furiously crushing the green-eyed monster clawing in her belly.

* * *

"Doesn't look like Flint's going to have a problem with us talking anymore."

"Uh huh, other people will be the least of Flint's problems for a while," Lizzy responded. Harry could spot the heat in her gaze.

"You think I am grown enough now?"

Lizzy blushed at his words before a sly smile broke out on her lips. "You looked quite mature up there. But I don't know if you are grown enough to be with me."

"Why don't I show you then?" Harry asked before sitting down on the sofa. He pulled Lizzy into his lap before fusing his lips to her soft ones. Soon, their tongues were battling for domination and Harry felt a triumphant roar in his chest.

Liz was his, finally. Life was good.

* * *

The door to the girls' dormitory flew open just as Daphne finished preparing her bed for the night. Tracey seemed to be a little out of breath. The girl needed to work on her stamina if just a quick climb from the common room to their fourth year dorm was enough to make her breathing heavy.

"What are you doing here Daph? Didn't you see what's happening down there?"

"Yes Trace, I saw Harry getting himself a girlfriend. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Go down there, hex her, hex him. Anything other than calling it a night!"

"There is no need for that."

"What do you mean there is no need for that? I have observed you since the end of our first year when you developed a crush on Harry. I have watched that crush blossom into full-fledged feelings of love. Are you just going to give up now?"

"I am not giving up Trace. That relationship will head nowhere, anyone with eyes can see that."

"But why won't you do anything? Merlin, you hexed me for kissing Harry the night we won the Quidditch cup in the first year."

This was the part that no one other than Daphne or Tracey knew. Back in the first year, it was Tracey who was initially making out with Harry in a secluded corner during the party. Daphne hadn't liked the site too much and pulled Tracey out of Harry's lap and into their dormitory. After that, Harry had somehow found his way to Elizabeth Rosier and by morning, his memories of Rosier had mingled with his memories of Tracey. It helped that neither of them had since bothered to remind him of that.

Daphne let out a huff before sitting down. "You were different Trace. You were an actual threat. Your public status is the same as his, a half-blood. You have no familial pressures. You could have had a real relationship with him. Rosier comes from a staunchly pureblooded family. Sure she is fooling around with him right now because he is a champion, but when the time comes to choose between her family and Harry, she'll drop him like hot coal. Trust me, I know what I am talking about. I have grown up in this society. I tried to warn Harry but he wouldn't listen. Maybe this experience will be good for him."

"And what about you? Who will you choose between Harry and your family?"

"My choice was made a long time ago."

"Then why are you going through with this charade? Why don't you just confess your feelings and be done with it?"

"Enough Tracey, I have my reasons that I do not choose to share. You don't have to follow me if you don't want to. If you wish to pursue Harry too, you can leave my friendship behind anytime you want."

"No, it's too late for that. I made my choice a long time ago. I just hope you don't wait too long to make yours," Tracey replied.

"Goodnight then" Daphne spoke with finality before drawing her curtains together. But Tracey's words continued to gnaw at her. Should she give her heart a chance?

Her father's words from an earlier encounter rang in her ears," There are two types of inferior beings that the current Ministry foists upon us, Daphne. You will soon be starting your studies at Hogwarts and as my heir, I expect you to be able to tell them apart and treat them accordingly."

His hand ran through her long hair like a doting father's would but sometimes it would linger a bit longer than necessary on the small of her back where her hair ended.

"The first are Mudbloods. Unlike many of our contemporaries, I don't hate Mudbloods. Their condition is no fault of theirs. They are freaks of nature, or being punished by the gods for past sins if one chooses to believe in gods and karma. Relieving them of their mortal existence is a pure-blood's sacred duty and burden but I take no pleasure in discharging my duties. When you are older and more capable, you too should perform your duty without hatred or glee."

His other hand continued to caress her bare thighs, slowly worming its way under the hem of her summer dress. Daphne's eyes stared dispassionately at this hand, which seemed to have no compunctions to maintain the façade of familial relations.

He continued to speak. "The second kind are half-bloods. These are man-made mutations that are a result of deviants and traitors tainting our blood by muddling it with mudbloods, muggles, or in some cases, even creatures. These are the worst kinds of people because they knowingly tarnish our purity and insult our traditions. They, and their ill-begotten offsprings, deserve neither mercy nor pity. Just death isn't sufficient deterrence for their kind. They should be tortured and punished until they beg for the sweet release of death. Destroy their kind with utmost contempt. Turn their ends into a warning for every pure-blood so that next time, even the thought of mingling with an inferior creature sends shivers down the spine of every pureblood."

"Let me tell you a few stories from our dungeons so you get the idea. Remember the ghoul you used to be scared of till you were six? The one who you sometimes heard when you wandered down to the lower levels? Well, Regina Falange wasn't born a ghoul but by the time she died, I couldn't really tell what she had become. Marlene Mckinnon was an interesting one, I brought her here to my hospitality after our raid on her family home..."

Daphne forcibly broke her line of thought. Remembering her father's words only made her feel sick. No, she couldn't risk Harry's life just to fulfill her rose tinted dreams. Harry was strong, but her father was a monster. He'd crush Harry. Marcus Flint was a flobberworm compared to her father. For Harry's safety, she'd continue to admire him from a distance. Girls like her, who were tainted in such a way didn't deserve to be happy anyway. Maybe someday, when her father was dead and her duty to produce an heir for him over, she'd have the opportunity to seek out who she wanted. Until then, the dreams would have to do.

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 **Disclaimer Time! (before people start flaming me)**

 **I do not endorse the racist, misogynistic views expressed by various characters in this chapter. I do NOT believe that people who suffer sexual abuse are damaged or unworthy. Unfortunately, this is a line of thought that occurs to quite a few people who suffer such traumatic experiences and I am just trying to capture those thoughts and feelings in my prose. Sexual abuse is wrong and I will never support it.**

 **Now, about the story. Could Harry have beaten Warrington? Maybe, maybe not. But being the quintessential Slytherin that he is, he chose the route of least conflict. Bribe where you can and crush where you cannot. Think about what would have happened had Harry chosen to duel Warrington too. Even if he won, Flint would have challenged him next. A tired Harry dueling Flint again could've gone either way. Flint and Warrington are like the two power centers in seventh year Slytherin batch, much like Harry and Draco are in fourth year batch.**

 **The 'deal' will be explained in a future chapter and is a sort of mini shock-reveal so please don't ask me about it now. I would, however, like to hear any speculations you have in the review section and if I get a suggestion which is better than my idea, I might be willing to change the plot to accommodate it.**

 **I hope doubts about Harry's strength and the reasons why Daphne isn't pursing a relationship with Harry are clarified.**

 **Did you get the Regina Falange reference?**

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 **Review Replies (earlier ones first)**

 **KnowPein-** Harry-Avenger. Remus and Sirius-mostly canonical story so far. Remus was outed by Snape and had to resign after 3rd year. Cloak of Invisibility-not with Harry. It will come up after a few chapters. Isn't being a living horcrux, the only one of its kind in history a strong enough factor to explain Neville's increased core?

 **Samain96** \- Patronus-Taught by remus. Wand-different specs from canon. Will disclose in next chapter but if you have read the books, you can guess. Map-Harry. Took it from the trio. Will reveal that story in some chapter in the future. Can't seem to find a good opportunity to reveal that story right now. Cloak-not harry. Grimmauld place confrontation will be really interesting and unexpected.

 **Magnusss-**

I am trying to establish Harry's character here. He has a crush on fleur and he is somewhat greedy, so he wants fleur even when he still has unresolved feelings for Elizabeth rosier. Also, Harry isn't solely focused on revenge and does have a life outside it.

Voldemort's eyes are indeed red in canon. I changed that here. The eye color is a subtle confirmation of Harry's Slytherin descent. There are no Goblin Inheritance tests to confirm this.

I am not looking to expand a lot on domestic abuse of Harry. I will heavily underplay it. A lot of fics tend to garner pity for Harry by expanding on child abuse and other things. That will be a very very small part of this fic.

Ron isn't very strong but the boy-who-lived's sidekick has to be somewhat stronger than average Joe to make him a worthwhile character. It's like Ron has brawn and Hermione has brains. Brawn doesn't mean he has brains to learn complicated stuff hence you see stupid spells like 'Eat Slugs'. If I don't even give him that then what will he be other than a waste of space? Writing him will also become pointless if he is such an insignificant threat. Also, Weasleys are shown to be a strong family in canon. I also wanted to keep Ron and Draco at the same power level.

 **NotASmurf-** Blood Magic is a path that will develop towards rituals and other esoteric branches of magic. It won't have much role in active dueling and spell casting. Like I showed in previous chapter, it can enhance existing spells. Harry basically performed a low level ritual there.

 **Anonymous1995-** Thanks, appreciate the offer.

 **George1892-** That's what I planned initially but I was getting a lot of reviews and messages about Harry's strength relative to this character and that so I just put out the nos for reference. Feel free to completely ignore those nos since those nos won't count for much in actual battles.

 **Guest99-** Do you still have the same view after reading this chapter?

 **JsLee102-**

Dursleys were the closest living relatives. Since Dumbledore didn't care a lot, he dropped him off at their footsteps without worrying about tracking down fourth or fifth cousins. Even if he did, Dumbledore would've sent harry to live with his closest relatives. Taking control of potter mines was impossible because the goblins wanted it to fail as it was a competitor for them. Goblins aren't good little bankers, they are greedy and ruthless. You will see further examples of their ruthlessness later. The signing authority was with a potter and they would've simply stated their convoluted rules and denied access to guardians.

Neville and Harry are distantly related, third cousins, to be exact. I will expand on this in more detail later.

 **Arata7Kasuga-**

Sirius is on the run right now. He hasn't visited Grimmauld Place yet so how can he give Harry those books?

You realize that is a fanon cliché? In books, the wards are charm based which is how I intend to keep in my story. Rituals will be rune based.

What's your view on his strength level after reading this chapter?

 **Orthankg1** \- you are right. I went back and edited it. Thanks for pointing it out.

 **Blackson-** How is Harry weak? You are looking at the three people who are stronger than him while ignoring everyone else. The three people are a century old hero, the strongest dark lord in history, and a person who is a living horcrux and has a prophecy backing him. Harry's strength level is on par with students two years ahead of him yet you somehow feel he is weak? I don't know what I can do about it.

 **Smutley Do-Wrong-** You need to brush up on high school chemistry. The acid in water is for when acid and water quantities are comparable. It won't matter whether you add water to acid or acid to water when you have a bucket of water and a few drops of acid. Besides, the ice is magic resistant so it's not melting anytime soon.

I don't understand what the problem with conjuring is. All magic spells ignore laws of physics. Incendio produces heat energy without fuel and aguamenti produces water without any reactions. You can't honestly expect magic spells to follow laws of science.

 **Sennybee98-** yes, blood magic will lead down to that path. Harry basically performed a low level ritual in last chapter in case you didn't notice. I am not big on labels so you won't see him shouting about that he is doing rituals, he'll just do it.

 **Phew, that's all. Keep your reviews coming. See you next time.**

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 **SpellBook:**

 **Loci Papaver:** A local nerve paralyzing charm. It cannot be countered by Enervate. Finite Incantatem can work but only if the caster has medical knowledge and can direct their magic towards the paralyzed nerves instead of the whole appendage. This charm is preferred by healers for surgery.

 **Falx:** A dark laceration curse/hex

 **Canis Multa:** Transfiguration spell that turns the base material into a dog. The 'Multa' suffix enables multiple Transfigurations to occur simultaneously. Species depends on visualization.

 **Facti Anguis:** Transfiguration spell that turns the base object into a snake. Species depends on visualization.


	8. Note-2 Blood purity

**Sorry, this isn't a chapter. I will upload the next chapter in a couple of days.**

This is how Blood Purity is determined in this story by those who consider blood important:

Parent Blood + Parent Blood = Child Blood

PureBlood + PureBlood = PureBlood (Purest of the pure)

PureBlood + HalfBlood = PureBlood (Not perfectly pure but pure enough for most)

PureBlood + MudBlood = HalfBlood (Considered highest among halfbloods)

HalfBlood + HalfBlood = HalfBlood

HalfBlood + MudBlood = HalfBlood (Sometimes treated as mudbloods)

MudBlood + MudBlood = MudBlood

PureBlood + Muggle/HalfBreed = HalfBlood/HalfBreed

HalfBlood + Muggle/HalfBreed = HalfBlood/HalfBreed

Muggle/HalfBreed + Muggle/HalfBreed = Mudblood/HalfBreed

As you can see, a Half-blood can become a pureblood only by marrying a pureblood. Similarily, a mudblood can become a halfblood only by marrying half/pureblood. This way, the purebloods can control the blood purity of the society.

Special Cases:

Veela(Pure) + Veela(Pure) = Veela(Pure)

Veela(Pure) + Veela(Half) = Veela(Pure)

Veela + Human/Other Compatible Creature (Male only) = Veela(Half)

Veela(Half) + Veela(Half) = Not applicable

Don't worry about the veela stuff. I wrote it now for the sake of completion. I will explain it in detail in the story in a future chapter when it is needed.

Power levels have nothing to do with Blood Purity. Any one of any blood and any ancestry can reach any power level depending on genetics and luck.


End file.
